John Parry (Parri Dall) was the famous blind harpist of Wynnstay, whose playing so delighted Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, the Fourth Baronet (1749-1789). Not many people are aware that Parry had a successor, albeit much less well-known. The Library has acquired a splendid portrait of Benjamin Cunnah, organist of Ruabon church, composer of New Welch Music and harpist to Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, the Fifth Baronet (1772-1840). The painting, possibly by William Roos, depicts Cunnah soberly dressed, accompanied by the instruments of his trade: his gold harp, quill pen and sheet music.

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Small parts of the musician’s life can be pieced together from various archival holdings. The Leeswood papers at Flintshire Archives record that Benjamin Cunnah had applied for a position at Mold in 1812. He wrote to Miss Griffiths of Rual for her support as he was being opposed by Mr Birch, despite Mr Eyton’s kindness, and he claimed to have been unfairly treated by being interrupted when playing the organ on trial (Ref. D-LE/C/7/6 and D-LE/C/7/15).

He seems to have obtained his position with Sir Watkin Williams Wynn around 1815, which demonstrates a late continuation of the harpist tradition among the great gentry families of Wales. The Wynnstay account books produce no evidence of Cunnah’s employment but they do record the installation, in 1770, of the fine Snetzler organ in Ruabon church, on which he must have played.

Here in The National Library of Wales. there is a manuscript music book in the hand of Elizabeth Giffard of Nercwys Hall, Flintshire, containing lessons, songs, dances and airs for the harp. It includes several pieces by Benjamin Cunnah, such as the ‘Nerquis March’ (NLW MS 24006A). These tunes were published as New Welch Music : consisting of three Sonatas, Chase, Minuets, Siciliano, Rondos, Marches, Airs with Variations for the Harp or Piano Forte / composed & humbly dedicated by permission to Sir Watkin Wms. Wynn, Bart. by B. Cunnah of Rhuabon. (Printed for the author by Goulding & Co.of New Bond Street.)

The names of the subscribers would suggest a publication date of between 1815 and 1823. It was unusual then for a Welsh composer to publish his own music during his lifetime.

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Robert Griffith, in his Llyfr Cerdd Dannau : ymchwiliad i hanes hen gerddoriaeth a’r dulliau hynaf o ganu (Caernarfon 1913), refers to articles in the Cambro-Briton, describing the Eisteddfodau at Wrexham, 1820, and Caernarfon, 1821, in which Benjamin Cunnah competed. Although not a prize-winner, he was very highly commended. He was judged a ‘scientific player’ who ‘produced the best tone’ and who received ‘considerable praise… for the taste and execution of his performance’. He was advised to concentrate less on playing his own compositions and to learn the traditional Welsh melodies that he could play to the natives! Cunnah was sufficiently esteemed to be selected as an adjudicator of the harp competition at Mold Eisteddfod in 1823.

A little is known of Benjamin Cunnah’s private life. He married Mary Rogers at Wrexham in 1800 (NLW marriage bonds St. Asaph A 137/7). They had numerous children, ten of whom were named as beneficiaries in his will dated 12 April 1832, proved 6 May 1840 (SA1840-198). He bequeathed his ‘musical instruments if any one of my children who plays may have a wish, to be given to them at a fair valuation by some well disposed person…and my music books likewise to be valued and given to them according and agreeable to their wish’. He disinherited his son Edward, not through acrimony but explaining ‘I have already given him more than what would be the rest of his proportion with the rest of my children…’

Thus have several disparate strands of interest, the artistic, the musical and the archival, become woven together in the story of Benjamin Cunnah, the ‘other’ harpist of Wynnstay.

Acknowledgement: Thanks are due to Denbighshire Archives for assistance with the research.

Hilary Peters
Assistant Archivist

In 1944 the Church in Wales began to deposit the records of every Welsh diocese in the National Library of Wales, for the benefit of the nation.  These included the records of the four ancient dioceses of Bangor, Llandaff, St. Asaph and St. Davids, and the two modern dioceses of Monmouth and Swansea & Brecon. Documents, manuscripts, maps and drawings were deposited initially, and the Library continues to receive regular deposits to this day.

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Most diocesan records relate to Church administrative and legal systems.  The records chart the history of the Church and its dioceses, church buildings, and the work of its bishops, courts, and clergy. It contains vital sources for those interested in ecclesiastical, family, and local history.  It is also a very large collection – one of the largest collections of corporate records in the National Library of Wales.  Fortunately for researchers, it is a well-organized collection, which makes access to the material relatively straightforward.

If you have never used the collections before and the prospect of navigating the diocesan records seems a bit daunting, try the following tips:

1. Know your diocese: Records of each diocese have been arranged into broad categories, such as Bishops’ Transcripts, Consistory Court Papers, Chapter Records etc.  In general, you can expect to find the same types of records in each diocesan collection, although there may be differences in the extent of the records and the time periods covered.

2. Browse the main description for the diocese: The main diocesan catalogue page will summarise what records are available – ‘Content and Structure’ and ‘System of Arrangement’ are particularly helpful. The main page will also display the categories of records.

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3. Quick Search: Many of the series and record titles are keyword searchable, so try searching for specific terms relevant to your research.  Remember to try different spelling variations to improve search results. It is possible for you to undertake a quick search within the collection itself by using the search box on the left hand side of the Library’s Archives and Manuscripts catalogue.

4. Printed resources: If you are trying to find information about a member of clergy, begin your search with Crockford’s Clerical Directory.  It contains details of Anglican clergy appointments since 1858. This information can be a useful starting point.

5. Unexpected places: Investigate sections of the collection which may seem irrelevant to your research.   Some official documents were not put into one of the general categories. For example, the Miscellaneous series in St. Davids Diocesan Records contains material relating to nonconformist chapels in Brecon!

Enjoy searching!

Lorena Troughton
Assistant Archivist

Safeguarding the second version of ‘Salem’

Last October the National Library was tremendously proud to have safeguarded the iconic work ‘Salem’ from 1909 by Sidney Curnow Vosper (1866-1942) for the nation. This work in watercolour depicts a congregation in Salem Chapel, Cefncymerau, Llanbedr near Harlech, with the character of Siân Owen dressed in a traditional Welsh costume holding a hymn book central to the scene. Across the decades, ‘Salem’ became an iconic symbol of Welsh identity and of the Nonconformist tradition in Wales.

Welsh homes and folk memory

Two versions of ‘Salem’ were created by Vosper during his lifetime. The first was created in 1908 and was exhibited in London where it was bought by the industrialist William Hesketh Lever who used the image to advertise his product ‘Sunlight Soap’. As a result, ‘Salem’ evolved into an iconic image across Britain. As Peter Lord stated in his book ‘The Tradition’ in 2016: ‘In the wake of a nationwide religious revival in 1904, the picture itself and its associated mythology entered Welsh homes and folk memory’. Among the other reasons for the painting’s popularity was that not many other Welsh images were to be had as attractive and cheap colour prints in the period before the First World War. In 1937 Ifan ab Owen Edwards sold prints of the work to raise money for the Urdd. The image was also reproduced for the ‘Cymru Rydd’ calendar in 1950, 1956 and 1957 and many Welsh people took advantage of this by cutting out the image and displaying it in their homes. The second version which differs slightly from the original and which was bought by the National Library was created in 1909 for Frank Treharne Jones, a solicitor from Merthyr and the artist’s brother-in-law.

Contrasts

As Peter Lord argued there is a strong contrast within the work between the simplicity of the chapel, the humility of the worshipers and the richness of Siân Owen’s shawl. Many believed that they could see an image of the devil in the fold of Siân Owen’s shawl, which did much to add to the work’s intrigue. Some believed that the image of the devil was a warning to others against the sin of vanity, something Siân Owen was displaying by dressing extravagantly to attend chapel. It could also be said that Siân Owen represented the figure of the ‘Mam’ in 19th century Wales. Siân Owen was known locally as Siân Owen, Tŷ’n y Fawnog. She was over 70 years old when the painting was created and went on to tragically lose two of her grandsons in the First World War. This gives an even heavier poignancy to the painting, when thinking of her symbolism as the Welsh mother and of the thousands of other Welsh mothers whose children were tragically killed during the two World Wars.

Local characters

Local characters are portrayed within the work, and they modelled for the artist in the chapel. One exception being the tailor’s dummy which he named Leusa Jones and which he placed in the front pew. It is interesting to note that the artist used Siân Owen’s features and expression for Leusa Jones’ face. It is unlikely that the black Welsh hat would have been worn in 1908, and as Tal Williams stated in his book Salem from 2010 not one of the women portrayed within the work owned their own hat. The same Welsh hat worn by Siân Owen, Laura Williams, Mary Rowlands and the tailor’s dummy was borrowed from Elin Edwards, of Chapel House, grandmother of Rev. Evan Rowlands. The paisley shawl was loaned by Mrs. Williams, wife of the Vicar of nearby Harlech. For the sitting the artist gave Evan Lloyd, the young 6 year old boy who sits with his aunt, Mary Rowlands a box of Quaker Oats to hold instead of a hymn book, for the artist was afraid that the boy would become easily distracted and start playing with the book’s pages. Wiliam Siôn and Rhobet Williams, Cae’r Meddyg are the names of the two local men within the scene.

‘An expression of allegiance to Wales’

During his lifetime, the artist Vosper was inspired to create works based on the Welsh and Breton culture, but without doubt this is by far his most famous work today. As Peter Lord stated: ‘Ultimately Salem’s success comes down to an expression of allegiance to Wales’.

Morfudd Bevan
Art Curator at The National Library of Wales

Part 2: Records and finding aids within the Great Sessions archive

The most useful Great Sessions records for researchers are Plea Rolls (the largest class), Gaol Files (the most interesting) and Pleadings, representing civil, Crown and equity cases respectively. There are no proper indexes, but many of the court’s records are complementary and can be used as finding aids. These are not comprehensive, but they are the place to start unless you know when a particular case was heard. Documents are in English from 1733, as are earlier equity proceedings, criminal testimonies and Commonwealth records, whereas most of the pre-1733 material is in Latin.

Here is what you can expect to find in the records and the internal finding aids:

Civil Side

Plea Rolls mostly comprise pleadings in cases that reached trial, giving the names and pleas of all parties, occupations and places of residence of defendants, and details of the issues under dispute and of any previous attempts to bring them to trial (noting court judgements and names of jurors). They also include recoveries (property trusts usually created for marriage settlements or disentailments), challenge pedigrees (drawn up by plaintiffs to prove family relationships to Crown officers so that defendants could not challenge the empanelment of juries), lists of attorneys, summonses and other process writs (often noting verdicts and damages awarded).

Finding Aids

Docket Rolls and Books and Praecipe Books (for the Carmarthen circuit) record details of every case submitted, including types of actions, names of parties, properties involved and names of attorneys. They are either arranged by the name of the plaintiff’s attorney or according to the stage the case had reached.

Prothonotary’s Files include the pleas of plaintiffs and defendants, copies of supporting documents, schedules of costs, and petitions to be excused jury service. The most useful contents are challenge pedigrees (see above) and slander cases (most of which were tried by ecclesiastical courts).

Docket Books of Fines and Recoveries, Docket Books of Pleas and Fines (for the Brecon circuit) and Remembrance Rolls of Recoveries (for the Carmarthen circuit) contain final concords and pleas in common recoveries, both being fictitious collusive actions. These records are often more numerous in estate archives, which also include deeds revealing the real intention of the transactions.

Rule Books and Order Books contain judgements and instructions concerning how cases should proceed. They are often heavily abbreviated.

Imparlance Books record cases carried forward to the next session.

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Crown Side

Gaol Files comprise records relating to criminal cases, namely:

• Calendars of prisoners waiting to stand trial, including names, alleged offences, occupations, places of residence, sureties, who committed prisoners to gaol, prisoners pleading their belly, and some verdicts and sentences. Later calendars also name convicts. Calendars are heavily abbreviated and often worn.
• Lists of court officers and jurors of the various juries summoned to attend court (including those excused, challenged or fined for non-appearance), with names of defendants and outlines of cases.
• Indictments recording alleged offences, where and when they occurred, the names, occupations and places of residence of defendants, when they were apprehended, names of plaintiffs and other victims, and suspects receiving benefit of clergy. Details that were not crucial to the success or failure of a trial were often conflated or recorded vaguely or inaccurately, and indictments were regularly amended because of plea bargaining or the desire to avoid capital punishment. Defendants’ pleas are also commonly recorded, as are verdicts and sentences.
• Bills indicating whether juries thought there was a case to answer.
• Bonds to ensure the presence of prosecutors, defendants and witnesses in court, giving names, addresses and the date of offences. Enforcement of bonds required this information to be accurate.
• Petitions, usually comprising complaints by defendants about how cases were being handled.
• Depositions and examinations of witnesses and victims taken before trial, usually in English (often translated from Welsh) and sometimes in Welsh, containing detailed information about every aspect of daily life. These are an extremely valuable source, all the more so because oral testimony given in court was not recorded, but most were destroyed because they were not official records of the court.
• Schedules of prisoners, with case summaries to help jurors.
• Presentments by constables and the Grand Jury submitting offences believed to have been committed. These often included failure to maintain roads.
• Writs to ensure the presence of the accused, ranging from the initial summons to distraint and outlawry. The type of writ used depended on the crime and how many writs had been issued previously.
• Bills of costs, showing (among other things) how suspects were apprehended and how the court used interpreters.
• Writs moving cases from Quarter Sessions to the Great Sessions, giving basic information about cases.
• Coroner’s inquests into matters such as violent and unexpected deaths, treasure trove and wrecks. The focus was on determining whether a crime had taken place rather than establishing the facts in full.

Findings Aids

Crown Books (only for Flintshire 1564-1666) and Black Books (only for the Brecon circuit 1726-1830) contain names of prisoners, details of offences and pleas, and verdicts and sentences. Not every case is included. The Crown Books also provide information about many of the other records found in the Gaol Files.

Calendar Rolls provide indexes to the early calendars for Radnorshire, Glamorgan, Cardiganshire and Pembrokeshire.

Order Books, Rule Books and Minute Books mostly relate to civil cases but their most useful contents are criminal verdicts and sentences. Records are patchy and often heavily abbreviated. Imparlance Books have similar information for the Brecon circuit.

Equity Side

PLEADINGS comprise statements and answers by plaintiffs and defendants, with witness depositions. Parchment and paper records are separate, so details of a case may appear in more than one place.

FINDING AIDS

Bill Books record when each complaint was first received.

Decree Books contain details of cases, summaries of pleadings, and court judgements.

Order Books contain orders of the court, including decrees.

We hope this brief account will help and inspire researchers.

Dr David Moore
Assistant Archivist

The records of the Court of Great Sessions are an exceptionally valuable resource for the social, economic and legal history of Wales from 1542 to 1830, and they are more complete than comparable records in England. They are one of the Library’s most important archives, but they have been underused by researchers. This is partly because court records can be difficult to use, but this blog will attempt to help readers find their way into the records. Part 1 will give a brief overview of what the Great Sessions did and what secondary finding aids are available, and Part 2 will look in more detail at the court records themselves, what they contain, and how they can help you to search the archive.

The court and its work

The Court of Great Sessions in Wales was established in 1542 as part of the ‘Acts of Union’, which applied English common law to the whole of Wales for the first time. The new court was empowered to hear the most serious cases, and twelve of the county courts in Wales were arranged into four circuits of three counties each, namely Chester (Denbighshire, Flintshire and Montgomeryshire), North Wales (Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire), Brecon (Breconshire, Glamorgan and Radnorshire) and Carmarthen (Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire). Itinerant justices were to visit each circuit twice a year, sitting in sessions of six days in the spring and late summer, and they were to hear civil, Crown and equity cases.

• Civil cases were those between subjects in which the Crown had no interest. They were the backbone of the court’s business, and mostly concerned disputes over property (including real estate, goods and chattels) and debt, as well as breaches of contract, slander, trespass, payments of fines, common recoveries, some damages arising from physical assaults, and other matters. The competence of the Great Sessions in civil cases was comparable to that of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster.
• Crown cases were those that touched the interests of the Crown. They mostly consisted of criminal cases, and the records are particularly rich. They ranged from felonies (capital crimes) – murder, manslaughter, treason, arson, rape, burglary, theft of goods worth more than one shilling (grand larceny), witchcraft and other serious offences – to misdemeanours such as trespass, riot, affray, illegal assembly, entries, ejectment, extortion, contempts, recusancy, and theft of goods worth less than one shilling (petty larceny), which could be punished by fines, imprisonment, whipping, the stocks or mutilation. Some non-criminal matters were also dealt with, including highway maintenance and Coroner’s inquests, although not all of these were strictly part of the court’s business. The competence of the Great Sessions in Crown cases was comparable to that of English assize courts and the Court of King’s/Queen’s Bench at Westminster.
• Equity cases were those that could not be answered by a common law court, either because the common law did not recognise the issue at hand (such as equitable interests in land), or because the court had no jurisdiction (in disputes that arose at sea, for example), or because no precedent was available. The principles of equity and conscience were followed, therefore, rather than the usual strict rules. This was the least important part of the work of the Great Sessions, but the records are valuable for genealogists because most equity cases involved matters of trust and agreement, such as marriage settlements, oral agreements, wills, mortgages and trusts, many of which arose from family arrangements. The competence of the Great Sessions in equity cases was comparable to that of the Court of Chancery at Westminster; this seems to have been the case throughout its existence, even though equity was not specified in the 1542 statute.

These arrangements continued until the court was abolished in 1830, and they are reflected in the records and the structure of the Library’s catalogue. Monmouthshire was allocated to the Oxford assize circuit, and its records are in The National Archives.

Minor cases were heard at county Quarter Sessions, and also at manor courts, as well as at Petty Sessions from the eighteenth century. Nor did the Great Sessions enjoy a monopoly over more serious cases. It co-existed with a number of other courts with similar jurisdictions, notably the court of the Council of Wales and the Marches (a prerogative court sitting at Ludlow until 1689), as well as ecclesiastical courts, King’s Bench, Chancery, English assize courts, and others; most Welsh cases in equity, for example, never came before the Great Sessions. Over time, precedents were established for hearing more cases in English courts, and the Great Sessions was gradually undermined. The complexities, anomalies and limitations of the court were widely criticised, as was the quality of its judges, and by 1830 it was considered outdated and unnecessary, although it had become a Welsh national institution.

Starting research in the Great Sessions records – secondary finding aids

A simple and rewarding way into the Great Sessions is the Library’s searchable Crime and Punishment database of criminal records for 1730-1830.

In addition, Murray Chapman has calendared and indexed the early Montgomeryshire Gaol Files, providing researchers with a much easier route into these records. Eight volumes have been published by the Library to date, covering the periods 1541-1613 and 1650-1660.

Readers who would like to discover more will need to make their own searches. To help with this, the Library has produced several finding aids, including:

• a full and easily browsable online catalogue of the Great Sessions records
• Glyn Parry’s A guide to the records of Great Sessions in Wales, which is the most comprehensive single work on the court’s records, procedures and development; it also contains extensive bibliographic notes
• A leaflet for readers entitled ‘Records of the Court of Great Sessions’, available in the Reading Room

Part 2 of this blog will look at how the court records themselves can help your research.

Dr David Moore
Assistant Archivist

While many General Elections have been hailed as ‘historic’, few can come close to the election held on 5^th July 1945.

The UK had been ruled by a coalition government since 1940 but, following the German surrender, the Labour Party withdrew from the coalition, forcing an election while the war was still underway in the far east. The logistics of members of the forces voting meant that the results couldn’t be declared until 26^th July and, when they came, they were a shock.

As the Prime Minister who had led Britain through the war, Winston Churchill was widely expected to win, but instead the result was a landslide victory for the Labour Party which took 47.7% of the vote and 393 seats. It was tremendous mandate and enabled the new government, headed by Clement Attlee, to embark on huge reforms, including the establishment of the National Health Service, a comprehensive welfare state, legal aid, education reforms and nationalisation of key industries including coal mining, steel making, railways and road transport, and shipping. The decolonisation process slowly started with the partition of British India and Wales was given a very moderate level of devolution through the establishment of the Council of Wales and Monmouthshire.

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Due in part to the strength of the labour movement in Wales, many Welsh men and women were at the heart of this transformation, and the Welsh Political Archive at the National Library of Wales holds many archives which shed light on the drama and debates of the period.

Government Ministers

Aneurin Bevan was Minister for Health and Housing; while there was cross party agreement on the provision of universal healthcare, Bevan created the model of a ‘nationally’ managed and centrally funded service. While many of Bevan’s papers are held by the Open University and the People’s History Museum, the papers of Bevan’s agent, Cllr Ron Evans, contain a great deal of interesting material.

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Jim Griffiths was Minister for National Insurance, another key plank of the government’s reform programme. As well as reforming the systems for unemployment and pensions, Griffiths introduced family allowance and reformed the system for industrial injuries compensation.

James Griffiths Papers

David Rees-Williams, who was later elevated to the peerage as Lord Ogmore, was still serving in the military when he defeated the sitting Conservative MP in Croydon South. He was appointed as Minister in Colonial Office and travelled widely, advising on reforms leading to increased self-government and independence for countries in south Asia.

Lord Ogmore Papers

Labour MPs

The Library also holds the papers of a number of MPs who were part of the 1945-50 Labour group in Parliament. Elwyn Jones was elected as MP for Plaistow in 1945 and acted as junior British Counsel during the Nuremberg Trials, and was Lead Prosecutor) at Marshal Erich von Manstein in 1948. He later served as Attorney General for England and Wales and Lord Chancellor of England and Wales.

Lord Elwyn Jones Papers

George Thomas was also elected during the 1945 landslide for Cardiff West. He later served as Secretary of State for Wales and Speaker of the House of Commons before being elevated to the peerage as Lord Tonypandy.

Viscount Tonypany Papers

Tudor Watkins held the rural constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire from 1945 until 1970 and during the 1950s was a strong supporter of the Parliament for Wales Campaign.

Lord Watkins Papers

Goronwy Roberts was another who won his seat, Caernarvonshire, in 1945. He was also a strong supporter of the Parliament for Wales Campaign and later served as Minister of State in the Welsh Office and a number of other ministerial roles.

Lord Goronwy Roberts Papers

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D Emlyn Thomas wasn’t elected in the 1945 landslide but in a by election in the Aberdare Constituency in 1946. In his maiden speech he spoke about compensation for injured miners; a topic which would be addressed by the government’s social security programme.

D Emlyn Thomas Papers

W. H. Mainwaring was the MP for Rhondda East, and unlike many sitting Labour MPs, he scraped to victory in 1945 over a strong challenge from the Communists

W H Mainwairing Papers

Robert Richards was the MP for Wrexham; during World War 2 he was Head of the Civil Defence Service for North Wales and in 1946, he led a parliamentary deputation to India.

Robert Richards MP Papers

Council for Wales and Monmouthshire

In response to demands for the establishment of a Secretary of State for Wales, the Attlee government instead established an advisory committee for Wales. Its first chairman was trade union official Huw T Edwards, who became known as the ‘Unofficial Prime Minister of Wales’ and who donated a substantial collection of papers to the Library. The official records of the council are also held by the Library, and include papers related to the decision to designate Cardiff as the Capital City of Wales in 1955.

Huw T Edwards Papers

Council for Wales and Monmouthshire Records

Overseas

Gordon MacDonald had been the Labour MP for Ince but resigned in 1942 to become Controller of Fuel and Power for Lancashire, Cheshire and North Wales. He did however have a key role in government from 1946, but not in the UK. He was appointed by Attlee as Governor of Newfoundland, which was then a Dominion under a form of direct rule and oversaw the process of confederation with Canada before returning to the UK, being elevated to the peerage as Lord MacDonald of Gwaenysgor and serving as Paymaster General. The papers are in the process of being catalogued.

Other Material

The Library’s collection of Illingworth Cartoons include many related to the 1945 General Election and the 1945-50 Labour Government, and some of the Library’s holdings of election addresses and posters have recently been digitised. The addresses of Labour, Conservative, Liberal, Plaid Cymru and Independent candidates can be browsed on our website.

Rob Phillips
Welsh Political Archive