Welsh Journals

"OLD BRECKNOCK CHIPS." A Column of Antiquarian Chit-Chat relating to the County of Brecknock. NOTES, QUERIES, AND REPLIES, on Subjects inter¬ esting to Breconshire, must be addressed to EDITOR, Bbecon County Times, Brecon. Real names and addresses must be given in confidence, and MSS. must be written legibly, on one side of the paper only. NOVEMBEE 26th, 1886. NOTES. THE GBEAT FOEEST OF BEECK- NOCK—BABBABOUS CUSTOMS.—The lot of the casual wayfarer through this wild region, before the Union of England and Wales, and during the rule of the Lords Marchers, must have been a sorry one, indeed, for the records of Parliament tell us:— That if it fortuned any of the King's subjects to pass, go, or ride through, or in any way, or path of the said forest, not having upon him or them a token, delivered to him or them by the chief Foresters, rulers, walkers, or farmers, which token should be well known amongst all them that were walkers and rulers under him and them, or not being yearly tributors or chensers, they should be compelled to pay to such Foresters, rulers, walkers, and farmers, a grievous fine or reward; or if such persons not having such token, and not being such tributors or chensers, should happen to be found or espied by any of such Foresters. &c, or theie assigns (!) by the space of xxiv. foot out of the highway within such forest, they had to forfeit and lose to such Forester, &c, all such money or gold as should be found on them so being taken out of the highway. Should the unfortunate wight, however, have already wandered from the path, and been robbed of " his money or gold " by some of these amiable verderers, and should again happen to exceed his tether of eight yards, and meet with another of these gentry, " he or they so being taken to lose a joint of one of his or their hands at the will and pleasure of the said rulers," &c, in default of payment of a fine, which he could not very well manage after having been completely fleeced in the first instance. It is traditionally mentioned that one I'an, or Evan Goch, who may be regarded as a kind of Past Chief Banger of this ancient but very objectionable Order of Foresters, was wont, on these occasions, to observe with brutal levity, " Keep within your xxiv. feete, or, by ye Lord Marcher, you will goe away without one of your two handes !" So by the custom of the Lordship of Crug-howell, or Crickhowell, any man unlawfully entering the Lord's demesne (park), " and there be founde, he ought to be attached by the keeper of ye parke, and to be kept in the stockes without the gate of ye parke, until he pay upp, else to lose his right foote, if ye parke be closed round about." It is difficult to see the logic of this shocking cruelty, unless, perhaps, it might have been argued, in the unfeeling spirit of the time, that the unhappy trespasser, having no business in the demesne, ought to be considered as having come upon a bootless errand, and had, therefore, deserved to "put his foot in it;" but this plea could have been but cold comfort to a man who was left with scarcely a leg to stand upon. The horrors of mutilation must have been exhausted, too, by the terrific charges of the chirurgeons and apothecaries of the period, the contemplation of which, doubtless, lent additional terrors to death, and affliction to the wounded. Many a cattle dealer returning from market along the Sarn Helen, or old Eoman road (one of the principal routes through the forest), and some of whose beasts or sheep had chanced to stray from him, has had occasion to rue the rapacity of these woodmen of the forest; for the latter had a pleasant way with them, when the drover's back was turned, of " annexing" those animals, and merrily marking them at once with the words " Fforest of Brecknocke," and retaining them for their own use, any notice subsequently given to them by the lawful owners to the contrary notwithstand¬ ing. All these " unlawful customs " were summarily suppressed by Act of Parliament as from the Feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist (24th June, 1536), and any attempt to exact such tolls for the future was to be treated as it ought to have been in the first instance, namely, as an attempt at highway robbery. All strayed cattle and sheep, too, claimed within 12 months were to be restored to their lawful owners. M. THE VAUGHANS OF HEEGEST AND TEEBAEEIED (October 29th).—There were several branches of the Vaughan family, and it becomes rather confusing to identify " the t'other from which," but I believe the following short pedigree account is correct, and shows the connection between the Vaughans of Hergest (Hergest Court is about one and a half miles from Kington) and the Vaughans, of Trebarried (formerly a mansion, but now a homestead about five miles from Brecon) :— Sir Roger Vaughan, of Bredwardine, one of the heroes of Agincourt Field in 1415, married Gwladys, only daughter of Sir David Gam, the Brecknock¬ shire Squire. Sir Roger Vaughan left three legi¬ timate sons, one natural son, and several daughters. From the first son of Sir Roger Vaughan sprung Vaughan, of Pembrey, in Carmarthenshire ; after¬ wards united by marriage with an heiress of the junior house of Tretower, of Porthamal, from whom descended the first Lady Ashburnham. A second brother of this branch of Pembrey, was of Wilts.