I have been searching for signs of our cottage history in the 1841 and 1851 census papers with no luck as many of the house names or partial addresses have been omitted for a more generic "Newmarket" ( The Village's former Name before it reverted back to its former Welsh name which means-the place or town of wheat)
Now it is not surprising that the census was taken in English as it was an official document, but as most of the documented house names such as pen-y-cefn, Ochr-y-Gop were written in their original Welsh, I had been looking for the old cottage address of Tan-y-Fynwent ( which literally means Under the graveyard).
Tan-y-fynwent was nowhere to be seen, and I was just going to give up when I spied "Church Yard street" , which must have been the former name of the lane
In one cottage resided a 77 year old shoemaker called Robert Parry, and in the other was a Thomas Parry (A miner then aged 26), His wife Margaret and their little girl, Elizabeth who was just 5...
This I found interesting for above our front door is a carved stone
The Stone inscription states
IN VINO VERITAS
1674
REBUILT BY THOMAS PARRY IN 1864
Fascinating eh? I think I have found another previous resident of the cottage!
You are living in a little slice of history. Do you have ghosts?
ReplyDeleteDigging up the past is always fascinating. Fun, scary and exciting all at the same time. It's also very addictive !!
ReplyDeleteFascinating stuff - glad you were able to make some relevant connections. Your mantlestone is definitely a keeper, especially now that you know a bit more of its origins.
ReplyDeleteI think that connecting back to the past sometimes gives us a greater feeling of where we are now, if that makes sense ol'lad.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
John W.
That IS fascinating. 'In Vino Veritas' seems to be the maxim of more than one Thomas, then.
ReplyDeletetom
ReplyDeletethe cottage was apparently a small pub at one time
selling ale and the like through a hatch to the street
far too low key for someone like you
ReplyDeleteYou would have been living up at the big house
You are a tenacious man, John the Dogs...just looking at all that paper piled on your kitchen table would have scared me off. Well done you.
ReplyDeleteGood diggin' John!
ReplyDeleteThat is so interesting and I find it quite fascinating. It's like living in a historical museum!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy history and am envious of the history of your home and town John! My house was built in 1986 and we are the 2nd owners--I'm afraid it has no story to tell, other than mine I'm afraid! :-)
ReplyDeletekim
ReplyDeleteits a village not a town
do you have villages in the US? or perhaps is a village ( under 400 people) called a small town in the US?
x
That is so cool. It would be interesting to see if you can follow them, and see what because of Thomas, and his daughter.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic find, John. :)
ReplyDeleteHi John! Parts of the US do have what they call 'villages' which usually have less than 1000 people. But where I live in Virginia, and in the southern US where I'm from, we don't usually refer to them as that, but instead all are called 'towns' regardless of their population. The town of Lovettsville that I live in has around 1100 people and is considered a 'small town.' We do have a post office, a couple of places to eat, but no grocery store, other than a 7-11! :-)
ReplyDeleteJohn, there are villages in the US, but some places actually define them based on population and some don't.
ReplyDeleteThe deed to the house i'm living in now lists all the owners, and one local man wrote a history of the area about 20 years ago. My house was built in the 19th century, but the barn was most likely built before the house. At that time, the tax rate increased once a dwelling appeared on the land, so many people often built the barn first, worked the land for a bit, then built the house. I'd have to research to see if that custom was true in this municipality in the 1820's.
megan
Well isn't that wonderful news! I LOVE things like this...to think your cottage was built way back in 1674 and now you know who lived there in 1864. I just read your comment about the cottage being a small pub at one time...and so close to the church! In Canada I was told when I was young that anything under 10,000 people was called a town and once it hit 10,000 it could be considered a city..albeit a small one. Not sure if that was really true or just what someone thought. I still use village when referring to the ski town that I moved to Kansas from. I guess to each his own? Hope your weekend was a good one.
ReplyDeleteMaura :)
Very interesting, John. In your diggings in the garden did you find any artifacts?
ReplyDeleteIt might be kind of interesting to see if you could follow the line of Thomas and see which villagers now, were his family.
I'm slightly surprised that a young Welsh miner should be in the habit of stone carving whilst under the influence of Wine; or maybe he was not being as truthful as he suggests.
ReplyDeleteThat's SO cool! and fascinating.
ReplyDeletecro
ReplyDeleteI have thought that too
"parry" is a common name though and I know three brothers were responsible for rebuilding the church and the cottages at that time..
I suspect that like most houses in the village
the richer Parrys owned the houses and poor ones rented them
Yes, your detective work does seem to have unearthed a previous resident and given the motto "In Vino Veritas" he was also very likely a regular imbiber of alcoholic beverages. The Devil's Brew! Hell and Damnation! Taketh ye pledge or burneth till eternity!
ReplyDeleteFascinating stuff.
ReplyDeleteDon't you find it quite addictive? There have been many nights where I been up till the wee small hours looking at old census reports researching my family.
"In Vino Veritas" is an odd phrase to chisel over the doorway, presumably on the orders of Thomas Parry.
ReplyDeleteCan your local library throw any light on it?
sp
ReplyDeleteyes!
various people in the village have informed us that the cottage was an !unofficial" ale house at one stage in the dim and distant past.
Apparently they used to sell beer etc through a small hatch in the side of the cottage to people in the lane
Very cool stuff John!
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteYour response to SP reminds me of the last place i lived. It was a dry township. If one wanted to have an alcoholic beverage with dinner at an eatery, one needed to go to a neighbouring municipality. After Prohibition, (that time period in US history when there was a constitutional amendment outlawing alcohol), the township never changed its dry status.
Some developers had great plans of making an upscale golf course and club house. Spent millions on planning it, but never checked to see that the township was dry (and not the only one in the Commonwealth). They were flummoxed and introduced petitions to get the issue of rescinding the dry status on the ballot.
Meanwhile, one of the township's farms became a vinyard and produced wine. It was allowed to sell the wine, even on Sundays, because, get this, it was an "agricultural product." Along the same lines as any farmer setting up a roadside stand selling his crops.
The dry status was eventually repealed (in the past 3 years or so).
Perhaps your cottage had some sort of similar story? Like a speakeasy?
megan
Oh my gosh John this is fascinating!! I have been doing the same thing with the house I live in and am finding more and more bits of history on it. Hope to hear more of what history your place holds! xoxo
ReplyDeleteWell as I have subs to two major Genealogy sites I went and took a look at the census records too. Family history research is one of my addictions:) I think it's wonderful that you live is such a great place with such wonderful neighbours.
ReplyDeleteMost exciting. I love history, although we American's are a sorry bunch in regard to how much we actually have here in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fascinating discovery! Have you ever found any interesting relics from the past in and around your home?
ReplyDeleteI live in Trelawnyd and have only recently become intrested in the history of the village it seems people have been living here for thousands of years, only 2 weeks ago I found a large sharpening stone right on top of the mound amongst all the debris , I have since found excavation hatches and also what i belive could be a medievil pathway to the top of the hill, Im not so convinced about the Boudicca link to the Gop but do belive that there have been some major historical events that have taken place locally ...did you know We have a Trelawnyd Castle ?
ReplyDeleteDo tell about. The castle
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