Welsh Journals

tithe severed by throwing out the tenth sheaf in such order and course as the same should fall out and ought to be pitched.1 There was also a tithe to be paid for grazing or agistment of unprofitable cattle, unless composition had previously been made in lieu thereof. Defendant had from Michaelmas 1755 occupied in the parish a tenement called Llan otherwise Llandisilio, closes thereto belonging, and closes called Llandraw being part of a tenement called Diffrin Trogin, and during that time had depastured thereon about thirty unprofitable cattle. In addition defendant in the sowing season, either in the latter end of 1755 or in the beginning of 1756, sowed several acres of his properties and produced fifty field mows or ricks of barley, the tithe of which would be worth C3, fifty field mows of oats (tithe worth 50s.), and fifty field mows of beans (tithe worth 50s.); in the sowing season of 1756 he sowed several large fields of peas (tithe worth L3). Complainant in a friendly manner frequently applied to defendant to sever the tithes thereof according to local usage. Defendant had paid no satisfaction for the profit of agistment, and had converted the whole of his corn and grain to his own use, avoiding payment by concealing the annual value of the properties and of his crops, and un- justly pretending that he had separated the tithe in a fair manner. Moreover in the harvest of 1756 defendant artfully chose to throw out much smaller sheaves, particularly of barley and oats, than the others of which his nine parts consisted, and did not sever them in the order of pitching, but wilfully threw the small ones, which he had severed in wrath and passion, against the ground, so that the greatest part fell out and was shed and lost. In addition he refused to make up his peas into mows but suffered his livestock to eat them up. Sometimes defendant in speeches denied complainant's right to the tithes; at other times he acknowledged the right but alleged that he had made full pay- ment. A small group of William Thomas's papers (Nos. 204-7, 268-71) relate to the family of Laugharne of Pontfaen (Pontvane) and especially to Mary Vaughan, spinster. They include an inquisition of the latter's lunacy, taken at the Colledge, parish of Nevern, on 2 May 1740, together with draft de- positions relating thereto, letters from J. Howell, Lincolns Inn, to John Laugharne, Pontfaen, 28 August 1740, and from Rich[ar]d Fleming, Chancery Office, to William Thomas, 1 February 1752, and undated depositions concerning an allegation of Mary Vaughan's seduction by Thomas Davies of Haverfordwest. One of the deponents was Morgan Davies of the parish of Rudbaxton, late mini- ster of the parish of Wiston, and 'ever since in Common conversation called Morgan Davies of Wiston'. Several draft documents of his father John Thomas have been endorsed by William Thomas, and other records in his hand include the marriage settlement of James Meyler of Penyshar and Anne Davies, both of the parish of Llanwnda, June 1748 (No. 214), the will of Thomas Lewes of Tredeved, parish of Llantood, 24 December 1741 (No. 212), to which he was also a witness, and an incomplete will of Evan Protheroe of Dolwilym, parish of Llanglydwen (No. 186). He has also included in some cases the purchase prices and names of purchasers in a notice of sale (No. 362) on 25 September 1761 of the estate of Sir John Porkington in Ambleston, Castlebyth, Llanychlloydog, St. Ishmaels, Haroldston, St. Thomas, and Haverfordwest. By his will (No. 179), compiled on 9 March 1766, and proved on the following 18 March, William Thomas devised as follows: to my brother Vaughan Thomas, a messuage called Trellwyn-vawr, parish of Llanllawer, for ever; to my sisters Mary, widow of Griffith Griffiths late of Manochlogddu, and Jane, wife of William Higgon, 6 guineas each; £ 50 to my 'sister James' [of Pantsaeson], wife of my brother-in-law William James of the parish of Monington; my leasehold estate called Kilkiffeth, parish of Llanychare, to my sister Elizabeth, wife of Griffith Gwynne, gent., for the residue of my term; 1 For the system of tithe collection prevailing in St. Davids and Whitechurch, see the abstract of a will published by Mr. Francis Green in his essay on 'Harries of Cryglas and Trevaccoon'in West Wales Historical Records, VIII, pp. 128-9.