Welsh Journals

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of worship. To state the obvious, it is also of value to anyone engaged in genealogical research. The book lists the members of the congregation at various dates. Originally, there appears to have been a record of the membership in 1700, but sadly this is missing and was probably removed when the book was rebound at some time in the past. There is a list of eighteen new members for the year 1730-1, but the first complete list belongs to 1759 when the congregation consisted of seventy-nine members, who attached their names by way of assent to a new version of the Confession of Faith. In a number of cases the assent is indicated by a cross, the name being written alongside. This entry is then followed by a long list of admissions to membership which begins in 1760 and ends in 1787. The membership of some of these individuals appears to have been short-lived because not all their names are included in the list of members recorded as existing in April 1792. This consisted of 231 names, and included those members attached to the branches which had been established at Sketty (1770) and Morriston (1782). The membership was thus already substantial even before the explosion in numbers which was to follow after 1800. In addition to the membership lists, there are records of baptisms, marriages and of deaths. The baptismal records cover the years from 1688 to 1710 and 1760 to 1787. During the earlier period, there were an appreciable number of adult baptisms, possibly reflecting the presence of baptist influences within the congregation at that time but only very occasionally do the names of adults appear in the later lists. Each item is accompanied by varying amounts of information. A typical entry is as follows: Griffith, the son of Hopkin John shoemaker, near Clydach was baptised 27 July 1770. These entries contain the usual crop of human tragedies, with one or the other parent dying shortly before or after a child had been baptised. The following entry is especially poignant: Wm. and Jn. twins, William Lewis's children were baptised on the mother's coffin at Mr. Morris's castle 8 October 1776 by Mr. L. Rees.6 The list of marriages is far shorter than that for baptisms, consisting of seven entries only, all of which relate to the period before 1710. The e entries appear to have been made in a very perfunctory way; more xhi a one item is incomplete. In contrast, far more attention appears to ha' e been paid to recording the deaths of members. As with the lists of baptism