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who died without male issue in 1741 his brother Wilmot, who succeeded him and became the third Viscount; his son Wilmot, the fourth Viscount, upon whom was conferred, in 1776, the dignity of Earl of Lisburne in the county of Antrim in the kingdom of Ireland,'1 and who died in 1800 his unfortunate son Wilmot, the second Earl, whom an affliction prevented from taking an active interest in estate matters, and who died unmarried in 1820 his half-brother John, the third Earl (d. 1831) who also represented Cardiganshire in Parliament and, in the closing years of the long period covered by the collection, his son Ernest Augustus, the fourth Earl, together with his eldest son, Ernest Augustus Malet, who was destined to become the fifth Earl and the grandfather of the present Earl. In addition, other members of the Vaughan family and numerous persons connected with them by marriage, in every generation and at every period, are represented in the documents. The contents of the collection consist, in the main, of those classes of deeds and docu- ments which usually make up the records of old and extensive estates-grants, leases, mortgages, agreements, abstracts of title, deed polls, wills, rentals, valuations, letters, etc. Although they no longer possess any legal value, yet their historical value is very consider- able, particularly to three classes of historians-(a) the historian of Cardiganshire in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries, (b) the student of place-names, who, even after allowing for the atrocities of spelling committed by solicitors' clerks, should find much to interest him in the many tenement and field names, and (c) the student of the social and economic history of rural Wales, who may glean from the docu- ments considerable data relating to subjects such as-to mention but a few-rents, renders and services in lieu of rent, land enclosures and encroachments, fishing and fishing rights. mining and minerals, tree planting, turnpikes, and tithes. Here and there among the more ordinary deeds and documents one comes across an item possessing some special feature of interest when looked at in the light of history. On August 1, 1761, the then Viscount Lisburne leased to David Evans of Gwenhafdre in the parish of Lledrod, yeoman, the said tenement of Gwenhafdre for twenty-one years. This deed (1, 958) does not appear to be of more outstanding interest than many of its com- panions until it is realised that the lessee was the brother of the Reverend Evan Evans, 1 Ieuan Brydydd Hir,' and that it was in favour of this David that the father, Jenkin Evans, made his will (which is also preserved in the Library2) cutting leuan off not with the proverbial shilling but with half-a-crown Thomas Johnes, the enterprising and philanthropic squire of Hafod, figures in a number of deeds of the later years of the eighteenth century and the earlier years of the nineteenth. In the majority of them glimpses are obtained of his activities as a land- owner, and of his mining interests. One document (II, 889), however, brings a reminder of those literary activities with which the name of Hafod is associated. Dated Sep- tember 29, 1829, it is an attested copy of a surrender and transfer by the assignees of the estate of Thomas Claughton of Haydock Lodge, Lancashire, salt manufacturer, with the consent of Johnes's widow, to Hugh Smith, esquire, of Stoke near Cobham, Surrey, of all the realty late of the said Thomas Johnes, known as the Havod Estate in cos. Cardigan and Montgomery, and the furniture, pictures, etc., and four libraries of books at Havod (which said premises had been sold on 16 Aug. 1814 by the said Thomas Johnes and his trustees to the said Thomas Claughton for £ 90,000).' Again, a glimpse of the rise of Wesleyan Methodism in North Cardiganshire early in the nineteenth century is provided when, on March 24, 1835 (1, 1422), the Earl of Lisburne ± The collection includes three copies of the letters patent conferring the earldom (I, 1072-3 II, 420). 2 Coleman Deed No. 146.