Welsh Journals

lives in a scuffle with the Indians in an attempt to deprive Pryce Hughes of a pocket compass, in the presence of one William Morgan, a native of Llanwnog who with several others from the adjoining parishes joined the Hugheses in their voyage in America'. The third son, Valentine, died 'a bachelor at Park' (which other evidence now indicates to have been the house of Pare Penprys, Llanwnog) in 1730. The three daughters, Fortune, Mary and Bridget, had married into local gentry families, and the article naturally concentrated on their issue.4 Let us elaborate the genealogical facts that we have about Pryce and Richard. According to the Montgomeryshire Collections article, their father Richard, was 'of Frongoch and Powis Castle'. He was Clerk of the Peace for the County of Montgomeryshire from 1679 to 1688, and he was chief steward to the Marquess of Powis at a most trying time in the Powis family's history. There are, not surprisingly, very many documents associated with him in the Powis Castle archives at the National Library of Wales. Documents among the Powis papers here also show that Pryce followed his father, who was dead by 1708, as the chief steward of the Herberts.5 I have failed to find a record of Pryce or Richard Hughes' births in the incomplete Bishops' Transcripts for either Llanllugan or Welshpool, but they were probably bom between 1685 and 1692.6 Valentine, the third son, was born in 1699, and was too young to have been involved in the 1711-1715 American adventures of his siblings. I already knew that Pryce and Richard had not died at the same time, a fact that was corroborated in the National Library of Wales, where, in the Powis papers, I came across a letter dated 11 November 1711, written by a leading figure in South Carolina history, its Indian agent, Thomas Nairne. He had written to Pryce Hughes at Powis Castle, expressing sympathy at Richard's death in Charleston.7 Secondary American sources imply that it was Thomas Nairne who had inspired Pryce Hughes to emigrate. Nairne's career is fascinating. He had visited England in 1710, in part to promote his plans for a vast British empire in the interior of America. Unlike many who considered Indians an obstacle to expansion, he aimed at co-operation, envisioning them as a bulwark against both the French and Spanish who were doing their utmost to become dominant in the American south-east. Nairne's published works are mostly letters and publicity tracts proclaiming the glories of the Carolinas." Verner Crane, a leading historian of the early American frontier, thought that it was during the 1710 visit that Pryce Hughes was influenced by Naime.9 It would be interesting to trace Pryce Hughes's movements in 1710 in detail. Was he in London when five Mohawk Indians from the province of New York attended Queen Anne at St James's Palace in April? These Indians 4 Mont. Colls., XXIV (1890), pp. 176-7; D.R. Thomas, The History of the Diocese of St Asaph (Oswestry 1908-13), Vol. I, p.485; National Library of Wales (N.L.W.), St Asaph Bishops' Transcripts, Llanllugan, mss.13,22; N.L.W. Glansevern 9788, this document reveals that of the three daughters, Fortune appears to have married Richard Bowen of Penyrallt, Llanidloes from whom were descended the Joneses of Trewythen; Mary married John Jones of Oerffrwd, Llanwnog from whom were descended the Venables family whose records are now in Shropshire Record Office, and Bridget married Richard Evans Owen of Garth, Uanidloes, from whom were descended Sir John Edwards of Greenfields, Machynlleth and thus the Marquesses of Londonderry. 5N.L.W. Powis Castle 16739,21299-21309. 'P.H.' is acting as agent, trying to staighten out accounts with Lord Powis after his father's death. In 1710 he is acting for Lord Powis in matters relating to rents on the estate. 'There are gaps in the Bishops' Transcripts between 1685 and 1690 and again for 1692. 'N.L.W. Powis Castle 812. 'For example, Thomas Nairne, A Letter from South Carolina (London, A. Baldwin, 1710). 'Verner W. Crane, The Southern Frontier, 1670-1732 (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1928, republished in New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1981), pp.99-107.