Welsh Journals

TWO POEMS ON THE GLAMORGAN GENTRY COMMUNITY IN THE REIGN OF JAMES II IN the Penrice and Margam MSS in the National Library of Wales, there are at least three copies of a poem entitled 'A Lampoon on the Glamorganshire gentleman', all in a late seventeenth century hand. These represent two versions of the work, which will here be described as A (P & M A 50-51, 3587) and B (P & M A 96). All copies are associated with the papers of Philip Williams of Dyffryn Clydach in the Vale of Neath, a petty squire who served the Hoby estate of Neath Abbey from about 1675 until his death in 1717; and who was also friendly with the Mansell families at Margam and Briton Ferry. The poems form part of a series of dozens of late Stuart satires, both on national events and figures, and on those of only local significance. Undoubtedly, some of these works were passed round in manuscript because their political character or obscene nature often made publication dangerous, and their authorship is difficult to determine; but at least some were composed by Williams himself, a prolific writer of occasional verse in English and Welsh. All versions of the 'Lampoon' are in his handwriting, and it is very likely that he was responsible for its composition. The gentry surnames given in the work confirm this rough date, probably between 1670 and 1690, but greater precision is possible. At first sight, there are difficulties. Verse 15, on Sir Robert Thomas, must have been written before about 1684, for the ruined Thomas family left the county about that date. On the other hand, 'Glamorgan's grand knight' (verses 5-7) must be Sir Edward Mansell of Margam, whose shrievalty (referred to in B) fell in 1687 and 1688; and verse 10 on Sir Humphrey Mackworth must have been added about this time, when he was establishing himself as squire of Gnoll (in Neath). Moreover, this version in B is accompanied by another poem in the same hand 'On the New Justices', which criticises James's new Nonconformist J.P.s of 1687-8, and which will also be discussed in this article. However, version A of the Lampoon omits the references to the shrievalty, and the account of Mack- worth here is clearly added by a later hand, while it does not contain the 'New Justices'. I therefore conclude that the Lampoon was originally written shortly before 1684, and revised about 1687, and that Williams was almost certainly responsible in both cases. Furthermore, he added his work 'On the New Justices' at the time of revision.1 The Lampoon consists of a series of brief portraits of twenty squires, providing a broad section of the greater gentry of Glamorgan in the 1680s, at a time when this was by far the richest gentry community of Wales. In the century after the Restoration, there were normally about ninety 'gentry' families in the county at any one time, while at the core of this society was an elite of between twenty-five