Welsh Journals

letter that there was a spy in my house and often mentioned to Charles my suspicion of others in which he frequently encouraged me. How is it possible I can associate with one so full of deception. As the friend of my Uncle I have ever respected him, as the secret spy over, and reporter of, my words and actions I despise him.'9 Throughout the latter months of 1813, Pryse's letters to his father became increasingly paranoid. He seems to have been convinced that the bulk of the staff of Gogerddan were involved with his father in an evil conspiracy to oust him from his inheritance. Given that Lovedon himself was keen to sever family ties with Wales, there may have been some grounds for Pryse's suspicions. On the other hand, Pryse was a sensitive, highly strung man who at this time was still deeply distressed by the death of his wife and perhaps for this reason tended to over-react to any suggestion of skull-duggery on his father's part. However, as the months passed, Pryse's mental condition gradually improved and he was fully recovered by the summer of 1814. The extent to which Pryse's growing affection for Jane Cavallier aided his recovery may be gauged by the fact that the couple were married on 29 April 1815, slightly more than one month before the birth of their first son, Pryse, on 1 June. Three years (and two sons) later, Pryse Pryse was elected to Cardigan Boroughs parliamentary seat, which he was to hold until his death in 1849. A staunch supporter of Whig principles, Pryse did not enjoy an especially illustrious parliamentary career, largely contenting himself with bringing local Cardiganshire matters to the attention of his colleagues.10 Basically, Pryse was a country squire with the appropriate attitudes, tastes and ambitions, and although he doubtless enjoyed exercising the patronage which parliamentary membership provided, he was at his happiest following the hounds across his broad estates in England and Wales. Pryse had, of course, inherited the Welsh estates and the Woodstock estate under the will of Lewis Pryse, and with the death of his father, Edward Lovedon, in 1822, the Buscot and Faringdon properties also came into his hands. The latter, Pryse discovered, were heavily encumbered with mortgages which Lovedon had secured to ensure an income for his youngest daughter, Jane Elizabeth, who was eventually to die unmarried at Aberystwyth in 1855.n The mortgages, totalling £ 15,760, had been raised from the Pryse Pryse to Edward Lovedon, 14 October 1813. 10 See R. J. Colyer, The Pryse Family of Gogerddan; Cardiganshire Political Letters', National Library of Wales Journal (forthcoming). Jane Elizabeth Lovedon was born on 24 June 1783 and for many years occupied 26 Bridge Street, Aberystwyth, the town house of the Pryse family. She is reputed to have been the last person locally to use a sedan chair, in which she was carried each Sunday to St. Michael's Church. G. Eyre Evans, Aberystwyth and its Court Leet (Aberystwyth, 1902), p. 116.