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THE DAVIES FAMILY OF
MAESGWARTHA AND LLANELLY,
BRECONSHIRE.
The first known member of this family dynasty was William, who arrived in the area around 1800. He was born in the 1770’s but the location is unknown. His wife was Elizabeth. In the first two decades of the 19th century Elizabeth had two boys and three girls, the youngest girl not surviving infancy.
In 1830 William was involved in the founding of Bethlehem Chapel in Maesgwartha. He was the leader of the original 39 dissenters who moved for the setting up of a Baptist meeting place and it is his name shown on the deeds of the chapel as the purchaser of the land. He also leased the chapel to the Rev. Francis Hiley of Llanwenarth. William became the chapel’s first Deacon when the chapel was opened in 1830. His son-in-law was another Deacon. William’s son Thomas and his grandson Thomas were Trustees of the chapel after he died.
William began to acquire local freeholds and build houses on land that he bought. Transactions are known to have taken place with the Hiley family and the Reverend Charles Vaughan of Crickhowell.
By the 1841 census he was the Forge Agent for the Clydach Iron Works and was living in an area known as Davies Houses, Graig Vaughan. This group of houses still survives today although many have been dramatically altered, none more so than the public house he owned, “The Crown and Sceptre’’. (The area is now known as Maes-y-Gwartha Rd Gilwern. As you enter Maes-y-Gwartha, from Clydach, Davies Houses begin at no 1 and 2 Pine Grove, once just one house, and end at the two semi-detached cottages at right angles to the road)
In 1848 he died leaving a total of 14 houses, ten of which were in Davies Houses, which had come to be known as Davies Row. His son William jnr took over as Forge Agent. William jnr had married Ann Parry and had one son and six daughters. Two of the daughters had married into the Lewis family of Crickhowell and Llanelly and one into the Griffiths family. His other son Thomas was by then a Refiner in the Iron Works. Thomas married Tydfil Vaughan and had five daughters, Tydfil dying on the birth of the fifth.
When the Clydach Iron Works closed in 1867-68, William jnr’s son, also William moved to Middlesbrough to continue working in the steel industry. Eventually, his son Robert William Davies moved to Darlington and bought a £5000 share in the rolling mills owned by Darlington’s MP, Sir Theodore Fry. Robert William became a well-respected member of the public. He was at one time National Secretary and Treasurer of the Christian Endeavour movement. He was a leader of the Free Church and a director of a building society until he died in 1928. He left a widow, two sons and daughter.
William snr’s second son Thomas, the Refiner stayed in Davies Row, remarrying Mary Ann Marker, from Penboir Carmarthenshire, in 1852. Mary died in 1864 after giving Thomas another five children. Thomas died in 1891 after a stroke, still living in Davies Row, then known as Tram Rd. All but one of Thomas’s children left to live in Blaina, Brynmawr, Pontypool, Pontlottyn, Rogerstone and Southampton. Thomas jnr, a Plate-Layer on the railway, lived in Rose Cottage, part of Davies Row, and died in 1909. Thomas’s wife Sarah remained there with their adopted daughter Annie James.
Where exactly William snr is buried is unknown although it is likely to be Bethlehem Chapel yard. The headstones of his son Thomas and his wives and Thomas jnr can still be seen propped up against the pine end of the chapel. They were moved when the graveyard was cleared a number of years ago.
This brief history of the family has been compiled over the last few years and has resulted in two branches of the family being reunited, neither having known that the others existed. Two descendants from each of Thomas Davies snr’s two marriages met up at Bethlehem Chapel on April 3rd 2005 and were warmly welcomed by the members.
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