Welsh Journals

the Pwllan boundary to a point on the Manafon Llan boundary south-east of Old Hall. We can deduce however that the tithing included Cefngwernfa and Cefntwlch but did not include Bryncaemeisir, Tymawr, Llidiardau, Dry Hall or Wern. In the middle of our century Edward Devereux, who died in 1686, was at Cefngwernfa. His son George, born 1678/9, succeeded him. It was pointed that there was no contribution from the Devereux family in Bryncaemeisir in the 1688/9 collection. Similarly the Baxters of Cefntwlch and probably elsewhere in Cefngwernfa do not appear in the same collection. We must admit that no Court Leet report for Cefngwernfa has been found but for that matter there is no Court Leet report for Llandinir and there is no question that Llandinir was a separate township. Let us now look at a few references to Cefngwernfa. In 1579 (GS11184) we have the transfer of messuages in Cefngwernfa to Owen Blayney and in 1580 (GS11185) we have a reference to Edward Baxter occupying a tenement in Cefngwernfa. In 1581 (GS11283) we have a bond for quiet possession of property in Cefngwernfa. The marriage settlement of Jane verch Richard and John ap Cadwaladr in 1596 (GS9535) refers to all the land "lying in Cefngwernfa" in the occupation of Leonard Wood or his undertenants. In 1606 there is an Exchequer case concerning trespass in Cefngwernfa by Edward Baxter, the land concerned being probably associated with the last mentioned land as it had been the property of Margaret verch Cadwaladr. In 1613/14 there is the transfer of property in Cefn- gwernfa to Owen Baxter from Mary, daughter of John ap Cadwaladr, and her husband Charles Lloyd. In 1633 at the Quarter Sessions we have the presence of James Baxter of Cefngwernfa, gent. None of the above-quoted documents refer in any way to Bryncaemeisir though many of them also refer to other townships, including Treberryw, presumably Berriew township. The special enquiry of 1665 lists no-one specifically in Cefngwernfa (though there is Richard Lloyd of Bryncaemeisir). In 1666, however, we find Edward Baxter as petty constable of Bryncaemeisir and a mention of Moses Baxter of Cefn-y-twlch "in the same township" (i.e. Bryncaemeisir). In 1671, Mr. Vaughan Devereux is listed as a resident of Bryncaemeisir (but he may not have been at Cefngwernfa): Edward Devereux (of Cefngwernfa) is listed under Bryncaemeisir in 1682. It does not seem proven that Cefngwernfa (presumably the area of the tithing) was a separate township but it seems highly probable and its absorption into Bryncaemeisir will have taken place about 1665. In later documents we find references seeming to imply such an absorption. Envoi It is possibly easier in Berriew, particularly for the older generation, to have some sense of the quality of life in Berriew in Stuart times than in many other more urban communities. In the book quoted in note 74, Professor Glanmor Williams says about Wales, "Quite small commu- nities could, and usually did, retain their particular quality and texture of life right up until about the year 1914." How difficult it is to describe the warp and woof of life which produces this texture from musty records and statistics. The records of necessity tell us of the unusual happenings. Few travellers give us descriptions of the everyday things they met with: one recent writer, for example, says they seldom told us about the horses they saw and rode because everyone was familiar with them.105 Celia Fiennes, who toured England in Stuart times and IOsThe Shire Horse', Keith Chivers (London 1976).