Welsh Journals

MEMBER LORDSHIPS OF GLAMORGAN. By J. S. CORBETT. It will be known to all who have looked into the early history of this County that the district in mediaeval times bearing the name of the County of Glamorgan was far more limited in area than the present County, which was constituted as it at present exists by the Statute 27 Hen. VIII., cap. 26. In that statute the County of Glamorgan is treated as already existing, and it is enacted that certain lordships, &c., shall be united to it, and that the whole shall be known by the name and shire of Glamorgan. Glamorgan (including in that expression what was known as the "body" or County proper as well as the "members") is described by Leland and others as extending from the River Rhymney to the Crymlyn Brook. Using modern terms, it might be described as including the district between the Rhymney and the Tawe with the exception of the parish of Llansamlet. This was the district which, after the conquest had been completed, owned the over-lordship of the Lords of Glamorgan. With Gower and the country to the west I am not at present concerned. It some time since occurred to me that now manors or lordships have long ceased to be of much practical importance, as what (to use a modern phrase) I may call administrative areas, and owing to many manorial privileges and customs having become obsolete, there was danger that the geographical bounds and extent of the ancient County and its member lordships might be forgotten, at all events in a great measure. This would be a misfortune, because there can be no doubt that a correct knowledge of these lordships would be a considerable help to the study of the history and archaeology of the district. I have therefore, by the aid of surveys (for the most part of the 17th century), and other information, prepared the map which is now before you,