Welsh Journals

WEST WALES MARINERS' WILLS 1650-1850 Tl HE yacht-filled harbours and marinas of the west Wales coast give little indication of the vigorous life which once filled and surrounded every estuary and creek. Wooden vessels from dinghies to five-hundred-ton ships were built on the quays, beaches and nearby fields. Blockmakers, ropemakers, sailmakers and chandlers were to be found in every small port. Harbourmasters bustled about; hobblers earned casual money for helping vessels to warp in or cast off and get under way. Coal and limestone were dumped overboard at high tide on beaches, to be loaded onto carts at low tide and dragged away, while slates and agricultural produce were treated with more respect. The marine community was tight-knit; sons followed fathers, daughters married within the maritime society, while wives and mothers maintained home and community. One source of material for the study of Welsh maritime life has not yet been exploited; the probate records left by a small percentage of that once numerous community of men (the wills and inventories of women in the maritime commu- nity are not so easily distinguished). Entering the word 'mariner' in the National Library of Wales computer search programme for the St Davids and Bangor probate records 1750-1858 produces hundreds of men's names, together with the date of the grant of probate (usually but not always indicating the year of death), and the author was kindly given prior access to the details being programmed for the period 1700-1750.1 So many were the records that research had to be restricted to Dyfed, with some addition material for Caernarfonshire and Angle- sey. There is a good deal of material for Swansea mariners which would repay separate examination. It seems likely, though little work has yet been done to prove or disprove the assertion, that Welsh shipping only got into its stride during the eighteenth century. The absence of evidence from probate records prior to 1700 is certainly not conclusive: firstly, because in the absence of a modern index to the wills prior to 1700 except for Bangor diocese, it is impossible to examine the records fully; secondly, because in the earlier period (this is a subjective impression) fewer men were concerned to note their callings in their wills. Research for this article produced no Dyfed wills pre-1700 where the testator stated that he was a mariner. The printed Bangor Index records a number of mariners, but the selection of wills examined revealed very little useful material. What is clear, as might be expected, is that fishing boats were owned by a number of testators both before and after 1700. Even a parson and former Fellow of Oriel such as David Griffith of Llanarth (d. 1626) owned a fishing boat, and a