Welsh Journals

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When she was 21, Clara Thomas married in September 1835 at Bath- wich, an elegant suburb of Bath, Henry Thomas of Llwynmadoc, whose family, like that of the Joneses of Trefonnen, claimed descent from Elystan Glodrydd. Though Mr. and Mrs. Henry Thomas had Pencerrig further improved, they seem to have lived mainly at Llwynmadoc and rented Pencerrig. Certainly, in 1863, the list of Special Jurors for Radnor- shire includes a Lorenzo Kirkpatrick Hall, esq. of Pencerrig, and an entry in an old diary found at Brynwern, Newbridge-on-Wye (later part of the Llysdinam estate), refers to a code of signals used from Llysdinam to the Summer House at Pencerrig by Edward Hall and Henry Venables in 1863. Pencerrig had now failed to produce a male heir since 1787 when Thomas Jones succeeded to the estate, and this marriage of the two Thomas families was no luckier. The first son born to Clara and Thomas Thomas in 1837 at Castle House, Brecon, and christened Evan Thomas Gwynne died, aged 14 months, at Tenby, where there is in St. Mary's Church a tablet to his memory. Done in Latin, it translates: In affectionate remembrance of the dearly beloved first born infant son of Henry Thomas of Llwynmadoc in Siluria and of his wife Clara. Born 16th October 1837 in Brecon. Died 4th December here.' It ends with a touching quatrain expressing the parents' great grief. In 1839 another son, Evan Llewelyn, was born, and in 1842 a daughter named Clara. Henry Thomas of Llwyn- madoc, Pencerrig and Llanbradach died in 1863, in which year he was High Sheriff of Breconshire, but his heir, Evan, only enjoyed his very rich inheritance for a few months, for he died tragically in Paris at the age of 25. This left his sister, Clara, one of the wealthiest women in Wales, made richer by the booming coalfields which lay under her S. Wales estates at Llanbradach and Pontypridd-the latter inherited through marriage with the Griffiths family of Gellifendigaid. Miss Thomas came into this huge fortune in land and minerals at the very early age of 22-a great responsibility for a young woman, even though she had her mother's guiding hand for another 13 years. It is said she never married for fear she might transmit the disease which killed her mother. That she was attractive is certain because Kilvert refers to her in his diary for February 1870, when she was 28, as Looking very pretty in a blue silk high dress at a dinner party (probably at Llysdinam). One man at least always wanted to marry her, it is said; he was Henry William Harper, born in 1833, at Eton, where he went to school before going on to graduate at Oxford. His family, if not distantly related to the Thomases, were at least their long-standing friends. He was ordained in 1856 and served the next seven years in the Church of New Zealand. He came back to England in 1864 and acted as Commissary to his father, Bishop Harper, for 3 years, during which time he may have paid his unsuccessful court to Miss Thomas. He returned to New Zealand and ministered there till his retirement in 1911 as Archdeacon. He came back again to England and, though he made London his home, he spent much time at Llwynmadoc. He was one of the distinguished mourners at the funeral of Clara Thomas in June 1914, in the churchyard of Eglwys Oen Duw, and he may well have been at her bedside during her last days in a London nursing home, where she died after a serious operation. He himself died in Kensington in 1922, but at his own request was buried not far from the grave of Clara Thomas. In his will he left a large legacy to Commander Charles Evan-Thomas,R.N. of Caerwnon, a second cousin of Miss Thomas.