| Notes |
- Sheriffs of Glamorgan: 1718, Thomas Popkin of Forest Llansamlet.
History of Swansea: "Long before the advent of any steel works in the
area there was an iron works of Forest (near Morriston) belonging to
Mr. Thomas Popkin, who was Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1718.
In 1729 Thomas Popkin, of Forest in Parish of Llansamlet, was party to
a deed of release in respect of Yniscedwyn Ironworks. These works
were said to have commenced c 1717 making the Popkins early pioneers
in the district."
History of Llansamlet: "In West Gower, during the 16th century, there
were mines at Llanrhidian, Llandimore and Weobley; some belonged to
Neath Abbey and others were under lay ownership. In the Loughor area
in the opening years of the 18th Century, Slir Humphrey Mackworth took
up a lease at Penclawdd and on the glebe lands of Loughor. In 1730
Thomas Popkin of Forest had also taken a lease of coal mines in the
Parish of Loughor.
In 1730 Sir Robert Mansell granted a lease to Robert Popkins to work
coal in Llanrhidian Parish.
Turning to coal working in Swansea and on the western bank of the
Tawe, the Morris MS., quoting a letter of Robert Morris, says that the
'coal trade began to flourish at Swansea in 1717'. The local copper
works, established in 1717, were supplied with coal at the time by
only a few collieries. In 1727 it was obtained, although in
insufficient quantities, from Popkin's Cwmbach and Penivilia pits."
In 1751, in Llangyfelach Parish: Thomas Popkin bequeathed a
rent-charge of 2 pounds for the poor (education).
Thomas Popkin, Sen, Esq left 7.10 pounds per annum, charged on a
tenement called Havod, in the parish of Bettws in the county of
Carmarthen, for distribution among the poor of Llangyvelach.
History of fisheries in the Tawe & Swansea Bay: "In June 1760, the
Steward for the Lordship of Gower produced a 'Statement of His Grace
the Duke of Beaufort's Title to the River Tawey in the County of
Glamorgan and Evidence to Support it'. The statement demonstrates
from the number of references to leases and rents for fisheries in the
Tawe, many applying to freeholders with property bordering upon the
river, that they were being run as 'Several fisheries' (that is
private fisheries) owned by the Duke of Beaufort, some existing in the
estuary and on the foreshore. The entry of 1746 records the renewal
of a lease to one Lockwood Esquire for the fishing from Forrest Bridge
to the sea. The statement also records other occasions when the
Lordship of Gower's title to the fisheries were challenged by
individuals. For example, in 1752, Thomas Popkin inherited land on
both sides of the river at Forrest, he immediately made claim to the
river and the fishery where it passed through his property. To defend
his title the Duke of Beaufort instigated legal proceedings against
Popkin. In March 1755 the dispute came to trial at Hereford where the
Court found judgement in favour of the Duke."
The History and Antiquities of Glamorganshire and Itts Families
By Thomas Nicholas has a great deal on the Popkins.
Cardiff & Merthyr Guardian 12.12.1868
ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF HEIR-AT-LAW TO GLAMORGANSHIRE ESTATES
Many of our readers will remember that considerable excitement occurred in the neighbourhood of Morriston owing to the litigations between rival claimants to the Drymma Estate. Legal and physical means were resorted to for the purpose of ejecting cantankerous tenants. The new claimants to the estates were mostly people in humble circumstances. After much wrangling and expenditure of breath and money, the new claimants to these lands and hereditaments were wrested, and the matter has been in abeyance for some years. But in consequence of the judicial and legal investigations on that occasion, a poor man named Mordecai, or as he is commonly called by his neighbours, Mort, has been convinced that he is himself the long lost heir to the Drymma Estate, and to immense landed property in Swansea, Gower and various parts of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire.
The new claimant has, with singular industry and pertinacity, prosecuted his patronymic researches into his pedigree until he has contrived to have an apparently unbroken genealogical tree showing his direct descent from Robert Popkin and his wife Rebecca, who married in the year 1711, and the successive transfer of the property to a Sir Watkins Lewis. Not only has the new heir succeeded in convincing himself that his claims are tenable and indisputable but he has also advanced his rights in so cogent and plausible a manner, with the aid of documentary evidence, that a number of tenants resding in various properties in dispute have absolutely refused for some years past to pay rent to anyone until the ownership, satisfactorily proved in the superior courts.
(i) David Thomas gent portreeve of the Borough of Swansea;
(ii) Owen Jones, common attorney of the Borough of Swansea;
(iii) Daniel Vaughan the younger, common attorney of the Borough of Swansea; (iv) Thomas Popkins Esquire of Fforest, Llansamlet, Glamorgan. Counterpart lease 99 years or 3 lives for a parcel of land out of a certain waste ground called Morva Vach [Morfa-fach] and known as
(iv)'s coal place, containing 50 yards in length and in breadth from the highway in the low water mark with all appurtenances; rent 6s 8d and a pair of pullets or 1s in lieu 23 September 1708
[1 parchment]
(i) Swansea Corporation; to
(ii) Gabriel Powell the younger of Swansea gentleman. Counterpart lease for 99 years from the termination of John Rice's lease or for 3 lives for a piece of ground or coal bank lying between the coal banks of Thomas Popkins Esquire and Thomas Price Esquire in the Borough of Swansea called John Rice's coal bank in the same manner as Thomas Popkins reserving to
(i) the right to enter the premises to erect mooring posts and to take landing etc. dues and to all persons to moor there ships there. Rent: 6s 8d and a pair of pullets or 1s in lieu. 1 March 1732/3
[1 parchment]
(i) Swansea Corporation; to
(ii) Walter Hughes of Swansea, gentleman. Counterpart lease for 99 years of a coal bank in the Strand in the Borough of Swansea, lying between the coal banks in the possession of Thomas Popkins, Esq. and Thomas Price, Esq. reserving to
(i) the right of entry to erect mooring posts, to take mooring dues, and to all persons trading to moor their ships 28 October 1735
[1 parchment]
>
(i) Swansea Corporation;
(ii) Rowland Pytt Coles of Swansea, gentleman. Counterpart lease for 99 years from (i) to
(ii) for a piece of land called the Cwm in the Borough of Swansea, leading from the bridge over the brook at south to the coal level at the north and having Sir Wm. Mansel's land Called Pentre Mawr and late Thomas Popkin's land called Cwm on the east, and lands of Evan Seys and
(i) on the west 6 September 1779
[1 parchment]
From: HISTORY OF THE VALE OF NEATH by D. Rhys Phillip
Leake, Thomas Neale and Benjamin Gyles "a parcel of land whereon an ironmelting furnace stood. "1 It is clear from the delimitation made on the lease that the Old Furnace stood not far from the site occupied by Foxes & Co.'s late 18th cent. ironworks at Cwm Felin, Neath Abbey.
Circa 1715.-There is some reason for concluding that Thomas Popkin of the Forest, Swansea Valley (High Sheriff of Glamorgan, 1718) was associated with the ironworks at Neath Abbey, and this may account for thc introduction of two of his Relatives as local ironfounders. Under ".Melin-y-Cwrt" we produce a document showing that castings from Neath Abbey were brought to that furnace and forge in 1718, while another MS. proves a Lease of the Melin-yCwrt Furnace by Thomas Popkin 2 in 1736. Carw Coch (Essay, pp. (33-4) stated in 1856 on the authority of James Prosser, aged 94, of Neath Abbey- whose mother had been in service with the partners (called by him Pitt, Collins, and Lewis, but known to the documents as Coles, Lewis & Co.)-that the originators of the Neath Abbey iron-works were the gentlemen here named. The only value of this testimony is its confirmation of our surmise that Pytt and his conferees succeeded Popkin not at Melin-y-Cwrt only, but also at Neath Abbey. There is some ground for assuming, as we show further on, that Popkin's nephew, Thos. Pryce, succeeded Coles, Lewis & Co. at the abbey works and the furnace of Bryncoch. Unfortunately the documents do not bridge these gaps in local metallurgical history. Thomas Lewis of Newhouse, Llanishen, was a half-brother of Gabriel Lewis who married Thos. Popkin's daughter Jane, and thus Thos. Lewis became a member3 of the firm of Coles, Lewis & Co. of the Melin-y-cwrt and Ynys-y-gerwn works. Thos. Popkin's daughter Mary, married Matthew Pryce of Cwrt-y-Carnau (the grange of Neath Abbey) a cadet of the Prices of Briton Ferry, whose 2nd son Thomas Pryce 4 lived at Cwrtrhydhir, Neath Abbey, and supplied the British Government with munitions of war. According to ID W. Jones,5 Thomas Popkin's second son, John who lived on the old Abbey land of Drymma, "owned extensive ironworks and his father before him, and his forge was so perfect that one of its chief operations was the. manufacture of muskets" (Transl.). Another connection is found in the marriage of Thomas, natural son of the above Thos. Popkin, with Elizabeth, daughter of Llewelyn Williams of Duffryn (who succeeded his father Philip Williams as Steward of the Manor of Cadoxton). Thos. Popkin, Jun., settled at Brycoch farm (which at a later period was let "at will" to the Miers' firm by his wife's 2nd husband, Dr. William Jones of Neath), and here we have a clue to the site of one of the Popkin iron-furnaces which devolved in time to his relative, Thomas Pryce.
These following notes relate to the existence of an iron furnace at Bryncoch beginning about 1735. The owners were Quakers who naturally were in the armament business.
The Bryncoch Furnace.-The date of the foundation of the Bryncoch Furnace has not been found, but it may possibly be fixed at c. 1735 or even earlier. "Elizabeth dau. of Mrs.. Thomas Popkins" was baptized at Ll. Gatwg, Aug. 7, 1750. Thomas Popkin died in 1752, and this date is significant in view of the appearance of the name of his nephew, Thomas Pryce, as iron master in the Customs MS.. of 1758-60 and a magazine reference to an explosion of fire-damp in 1754 at "the coal-works of Messrs. Pryce and Williams near Neath." As to Thos. Pryce, Chas. Wilkins observes rather indefinitely on page 31 of his Coal Trade, that "Previous to the Quakers there was a Mr. Pryce. He lived at Longford Court, near Neath Abbey. He was an iron
1 M.S. D.D. 829 (Nat. Lib. of Wales).
2 Son of the Sheriff of 1718. His elder bro. Robert married Rebecca Evans of Peterwell, who as "Mrs. Rebecca Popkins" appears as a subscriber to the Rev. Theoph Evan's Pwyll y Pader, 1733.
3 All the evidence we have seems to confirm this identification, though the abstracts of the leases do not, unfortunately, give Thos. Lewis's home residence.
4 A "Thomas Price, of Watford," Glam, was a partner (1759-63) with Thos. Lewis and others in the Myrthyr (Dowlais) Furnace.
5 Han. Morg, 347.
BRYNCOCH AND NEATH ABBEY 287
manufacturer at Yniscedwyn . . . and other places, before the Hills and Crawshays. He had a number of small furnaces in various places, first for charcoal and then coke. Pryce died about the middle of last century, leaving a large fortune to his widow and an only son." We have a bill of exchange (Customs MSS.) which shows that Thos. Pryce1 was alive in 1785. On Feb. 22 of that year, Richard Parsons of Cadoxton writes: "pay Thomas Pryce Esq.... £100." The following extracts, from the records of the Board of Customs, indicate this gentleman's activities in 1758-60. They reveal him as a Shotfounder and Gunmaker to the Board of Ordnance and prove his residence at Cwrt-rhyd-hir, Neath Abbey,:-
175S-60. Extracts from the Customs .MSS. Oct. 11, 1758. The Board of Customs writes as follows to the Collector, etc.:-" Gent., Mr. Boddington of the Board of ordnance having by his Letter of 9 Int. acquainted us that Mr.Thos. Pryce of Coretredhir near Neath has the Iron ordnance and Round Shot men'd on the Back hereof Cast for his Maj. Service We direct you to permit the Said ordinance to be Shipped 071 board the Coaster, Jno. Williams mr. and the Ch'g Molly, Will Harris mr. with proper Dispatches in order to be Brought `& Landed at Woolrich for his Majesties Service . . . By the Coaster, Jno Will's ma.:- 26 Ton of 32 pound Shot; 14 Ton of 24 pounder; 15 4-pounder Guns, 3 3- pounder Guns by the Ch'g Molly, Will Harris ma'r:-22 ton of 32 pouncl Shot; 12 ton of 24 p'd Shot; 5 Ton of 12 pdr. Shot; 2 Ton of 6 pdr. Shot; 15 4-pounder Guns; 15 3-pounder do." Again on Dec. 2:- "Gen.... Mr. Th. Pryce, shot pounder hath got ready at Neath one hundred & Ten Ton Pound Shot for his Majesties Service, we direct you to permit the sd. Shot to be Shipt on board the Molly, Jen. Frances mr.... and Landed at Woolwich... "In other letters "Woolwich Warren" is the place of landing. On Feb. 23, 1759, there is ordered from Mr. Pryce: 'Twenty Guns, nine Pounders, and Forty Eight Tons of Round Shot". On March 6:- "10 Tons of 12 Pounders and 5 of Six Pounder Shot." On March 20: "Twelve Guns Nine Pounders: Seven tons of 12, four of 6, and 4 of 32 Pounder Shot." On July 19: "88 tons of round shot for Portsmouth." On October 9: "Fifty tons of Iron Shot." On October 25: "Seventy tons of Round Shot. . . to be shipped on board the Anne & Margaret, Sherrock Jenkins master . . . and landed at Portsmouth Gun Wharf." On Nov. 8: "Seventy tons riund shot . . . and landed at woolwich warren." On Dec. 20: "Eighty Tons Round Shot." On Jan. 12, 1760, the following Round Shot: "30 tons for 24 pounders, 20 tons for 18 pounders, 20 tons for 12 pounders, and 10 tons for 6 pounders." On Jan. 22, 1760: "Eighty Tons Round Shot." In April of same year: "10 tons for 6 pounders round shot, 40 of 12, 15 of 18, and 15 of 24 pounder shot."
In May the quantity is not given - and at that date the entries on the Customs Board Orders Book came to an end. From the fact that these were shipped at Neath-as one entry indicates-we infer that the Guns and Shot were made at Thos. Pryce's works in the Bryncoch-Neath Abbey, area. Among the documents of Coles, Lewis & Co. is the following abstract lease, marking a transfer of the Bryncoch furnace (consequent possibly on the death of Thos. Pryce) to that firm, with which Thos. Lewis (a brother of Pryce's uncle Gabriel) was or had been associated:-
" Lease from Philip Williams-Esqr. of Duffryn of Brincoch Furnace & Tenement of Land from Lady Day 1772 for Thirty five Years liens for the First five Years £25 p. Ann. and for the Remainder of the Term £25 p. Ann. and Also of a Coalery at Warndee on paying 4s p. Wey of 54 Baggs, each bag to Contain 3 Winchester Bushels for all Coal got on said Premisses, with a Clause in the said Lease that if the Works or Coal is not Worked within the Space of Six: Months at any one time that then the Lease shall be Void, and the said Phillip Williams or his Heirs to take to the Premises again .... ,£20."
In view of the evidence we have already adduced of iron-working (probably continuous in the Neath district from the coming of the Normans by the record of 1281, the forge of 1566,2 the iron-melting furnace anterior to 1694, the Popkin-Pryce probable continuation through the 18th century till after 1780, the Coles, Lewis & Co. succession at Bryncoch in 1772, &c., the following note
1 Thos. Pryce bought Dyffryn House, St. Nicholas, and was living there in 1776, when he granted a lease of the piece of land whereon the historic chapel of Gyfylchi was built. His mother was alive in 1762 (L.P. 85), and the Minutes of the Swansea Fishery 1775 state that his brother Joseph had then "gone abroad"
2 And others of 1670-1 mentioned above.
288 HISTORY OF THE: VALE OF NEATH
(received 15 July 1919) from Mr. Stephen Michell, who is writing a history of the Cornish Foundries, is worthy of quotation:-
" John Harvey who originated the Hayle Foundry took old iron scrap to Neath in exchange for iron pumps1 as early as 1776. The Cornish founders of those days would only produce small and simple castings, of the methods of casting cylinders and pumps they had no knowledge. The founders at Coalbrookdale and elsewhere jealously guarded their trade secrets, to discover which John Harvey's travels and devices make a romantic story. I have been trying to find out when the Neath Abbey works were built and have no documentary evidence of earlier date than 1800. It then becomes an interesting query- where did John Harvey get his castings a quarter of a century earlier ? "
We have little doubt but that they were procured from the works of Coles, Lewis & Co., or those of Thos. Pryce, which had supplied the Government with munitions in 1758-60.
The last dated abstract-lease of Coles, Lewis & Co. in our possession is marked 1772, but their rentings of "A warehouse and yard, &c. at Neath Key" from Herbert Mackworth, Esq. (who was created a Baronet in 1776) and "A Warehouse at Britton Ferry" from George Venables Vernon, Esq., are both undated. On Sept. 19, 1764, a member of the above firm, "William Coles, of Cadoxton, ironmaster," leased the site and built the first Swansea Pottery Works. "The first engine turned out of the Neath Abbey works," says Turner (Ceramics, p. 11) "was placed in the old grinding mill of the Swansea Pottery by . . . William Coles." He died before Feb. 1783.2
Behind the vestry door of the parish church of Llangatwg there are two memorials, respectively in iron and stone, perpetuating the name of Thomas Guest, of Neath, Ironmaster, who died Dec. 14, 1782, aged 53. His widow Ann was buried there, Feb. 24, 1790. So far, we have found no document to throw light on his career or to indicate the local ironworks of which he was "master." But the probable link; is with the Vale of Neath firm of Coles Lewis & Co. Apparently Thomas Lewis of that firm founded the Dowlais Works in 1757-9. There were a number of shareholders who were joined by John Guest of Broseley in 1782. The latter died in 1787 and was succeeded by his son Thomas,3 who remained a prominent partner till the succession of his sons (Sir) John Josiah Guest and Thomas Revel Guest about 1819. We can only surmise, therefore, that the Thos. Guest who died at Neath in 1782 was a brother or cousin of John Guest of Broseley, grandfather of Sir. J. J. Guest of Dowlais.
Neath Abbey: 1785-92: Richard Parsons.- on a previous page we quoted a bill of exchange which indicated business relations between Thos. Pryce and Richard Parsons in 1785. The link is interesting in view of a Lease which marks the termination, in 1792, of R. P.'s career as an "ironmaster." Till this lease was unearthed by us there was no evidence-not even a tradition- that Parsons had ever made iron at Neath Abbey. That he took over the "Abby Pitt," in 1793, from the Lords of the Manor of Cadoxton, is shown herein under the "Coal" section.
The Advent of the Quakers.-Many attempts have been made to fix the date of the coming of the Quakers from the Duchy of Cornwall to the ancient ironworks at Cwm-y-Felin, Neath Abbey. The Fox family are said to have settled in Cornwall over two centuries ago.4 A former Geo. Croker Fox
1 "The pipes used underground for drainage are always known in Cornwall as pumps, and were originally of wood "
2 We have not been able to verify Turner's statement by any document.
3 See Lloyd, Old S. Wales Iron Works p. 33.
4 "'There is evidence that the Foxes were established in Cornwall at least as early as 1646, at St. Germans. They made their appearance in Falmouth in 1656-7. Later. members of the family settled at Looe, Fowey, St. Austell and Plymouth, and engaged in business as smelters and general merchants. In the 18th cent. the Foxes of Falmouth leased the piers and quays of Portreath, and laid out much capital in improving the roads over which copper ores were brought to the wharves for shipment to Neath, Swansea, and other places." Private leturfrom Mr. S. Michell.
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Abt 1695 - Yes, date unknown