CYMRU FU:

SOME CONTEMPORARY STATEMENTS.*

By R. ARTHUR ROBERTS,

Of the Public Record Office.

It was my privilege, some years ago, to give a summary account in the audience of this Society of the Public Records relating to Wales as a whole. On this occasion 1 confine myself to one class, which are technically known as "Ministers' Accounts." These contain statements of fact intimately concerning the inhabitants of the parts of the country to which they relate; the statements were made. by men who themselves were on the spot at the moment when the facts chronicled arose, and by men, too, who were, by the very nature of the arrangements prevailing, bound to the strictest veracity. By the study of these documents, therefore, we may reasonably expect to gain some knowledge of the circumstances of the life of the people in Wales in times remote from the present, and in this expectation anyone properly qualified entering upon this study will, I think, not be disappointed.

It is necessary at once to explain that these "ministers" were not persons of a religious calling, such as those with whom the word in Wales is now most generally associated, but (to quote from Mr. Scargill-Bird's invaluable Guide to the Public Records) "Bailiffs, Farmers, Reeves, Collectors, Receivers, and other Officers or Ministers of such Manors

*Paper read before the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, on the 11th of June, 1896, at 20, Hanover Square. Chairman, Mr. Edward Owen.

(M.A. Portfo. 1202, No. 1)

and Lands belonging to the ancient demesne of the Crown as did not form part of the Firma Comitatus or yearly Farm of the Sheriff, and also of such lands as were acquired from time to time by escheat, forfeiture, or otherwise." These ministers brought to the King's Exchequer a compotus, or account of their receipts and expenses, containing minute particulars; and these accounts, rolls of parchment of a varied character, so left at the Exchequer, have remained to this day and are now carefully preserved, and may be examined by any who have leisure to devote to the task, but profitably, it should be said, only by those who can interpret the abbreviated Latin in which they are expressed. They have reference to all parts of the country south of the Tweed, and among them are many relating to Wales and to almost every district of Wales. The particulars to be obtained from them are valuable historically, are often very curious and interesting, and are always instinct, as it were, with life and actuality.

Almost, if not quite, the earliest in date of the Welsh section is one that bears the venerable age of over six hundred and thirty years, referring to a time when, as all the world knows, on the throne of England sat King Henry III, and ten years of his reign had still to run. In the year 1262 died Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, Lord of Glamorgan, and for the space of a few days more than twelve months his lands in Glamorgan were in the hands of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, then Warden of the Marches of Wales, as representative of his lord the king. The exact period during which they were so held was from Lammas Day, the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula, that is, 1st of August, 1262, to the 10th of August in the following year. During this time, I need hardly say, the Earl of Hereford took good care to secure

such of the proceeds as were forthcoming. Then it was that somebody "farmed" the whole of Cardiff-Kerdiff, the roll calls it. There was a port there then, as now; there was good fishing, and there were mills. This "farmer" had them all; made out of the town and port, fishery and mills, what he could, and paid a rent of £66 13s. 4d. [I am not concerned now with the values of money, but you will understand that that sum represented then a much greater value than such a sum denotes to-day; and what the comparative value is might easily be worked out from this very document from which I am quoting.] There were other rents and moneys accounted for which I must not stay now to give details of one among them, for example, of 58., the proceeds of a tax on the beer that was brewed at Cowbridge. But the most interesting part of the Earl of Hereford's account is, I think, his statement of expenditure, and to that I turn at once. He took over the management of the property, so to say, in the month of August. Like a prudent agriculturist he did not, although it was a troublous time, allow these broad acres to remain unsown and untilled. At Lantwit-which the document calls Lanyltwyt-he sowed thirty-six quarters of corn, for which he paid six and eight pence (half a mark) the quarter, and fifty quarters of oats, for which he disbursed two shillings and sixpence the quarter, and he sowed also, possibly, some beans. I am not practical agriculturist enough to estimate how far these quantities would go, but it is stated that there were four ploughmen employed there: it may be taken for a certainty that they were occupied in preparing the land more days than one; but whatever time they occupied, when their work was completed, they divided between them the sum of six shillings and twopence, that is, less than the price of a quarter of corn.

This document furthermore tells us something of the occupants at this time of the castles of Neath, of Llangenydd, of Talvan, of Llantrissant, and of Cardiff itself. We can in imagination accompany the Earl of Hereford to any one of these outlying strongholds, and turn out the whole of the garrison for inspection. Let us, for example, look at them as they might be mustered at Neath for the purpose. There is first, standing out alone, the constable. He is allowed two horses, and has two grooms or men to attend to them. He is supported by five men in armour; each of these is on horseback, and each has a spare horse beside, and each has two grooms. This is the fighting force. Then a little aside stands the clerk; he has one horse and one groom. The garrison is not left without spiritual privileges: they have a chaplain, whose duties, however, do not take him abroad, and who, therefore, has no horse, but only an attendant. Now come the subordinate establishment-the porter at the gate, the man who carries the keys, the cook, the baker, the brewer, the smith, the ferrymen, the reeve, two foresters, two cowherds, the miller, the laundress, and sundry others, in all fifty-two persons and thirteen horses. Such was the garrison of Neath Castle, and this document proceeds to tell how much bread and beer they consumed per week, and what the cost of the accompaniments to these staple articles of food was; also how much each person was allowed for clothing during the time. Details would be tedious, but the document furnishes them, and in the case of Talvan gives us the names of the two men-at-arms who, with their armoured horses, for the pay of twelve pence a day, and at a cost of living of seven shillings per week, held this post for the Lord Marcher and the King. The men were Owen Grek and his brother Morgan.

Cardiff Castle at this time, for a reason which we can

only surmise, had a much smaller garrison than Neath. The constable had but three men-at-arms to support him; he had this advantage, however, over his fellow at Neath : he was allowed three horses where the other had but two.

1158, No. 1)

The next document' to which I should wish to refer (M.A. Portfo. makes statements of a more purely Welsh character (though still in the Law Latin of the period, of course), and deals with a time fifteen years later, when, Henry III having been laid with his fathers, his son Edward, as yet a young king, had succeeded him in England, and in Wales Llewellyn had been brought to terms of submission and had married a wife, a daughter of the great de Montfort. This document relates to Cardiganshire. Before I say anything as to its contents, permit me to read and so recall to your minds two or three passages from the Brut y Tywysogion, or Chronicle of the Princes of Wales. I quote from the translation in the Rolls edition, as sufficient for my purpose. First, under the year 1276, we read there," At length, about the feast of Candlemas [that is, February the 2nd], the King appointed a Council at Worcester and there he designed three armies against Wales. The third army he sent to Caermarthen and Ceredigion, led by Pain, son of Patrick de Says." Then under the next year, 1277, we have, "Then Pain, son of Patrick, subjugated to the King three commots of Upper Aeron-Anhunog, and Mevenydd and the middle commot. And Rhys, son of Maredudd and Rhys Wyndod, and the two sons of Maredudd, son of Owain, son of Gruffudd, son of the Lord Rhys, from Ceredigion, went to the Court of the King, to offer their homage and oath of allegiance to him. The same year, the feast of

1 See Transcript of this roll, given as an appendix to this paper.