This collection relates to parts of the St Helen's Estate in the Town and Franchise of Swansea that belonged to the Jones and Morgan families. It consists of title deeds and other records relating to properties that belonged eventually to Evan Morgan, and also correspondence relating to the family and ancestors of Mary Rose Mumford, who was his great-granddaughter. St Helen's House was an 18th century mansion situated in what had once been countryside to the west of Swansea Town. It was built on the site of a medieval religious foundation connected with a well sacred to St Helen. The house was purchased from Calvert Richard Jones by Captain John Jones (1751-1828) in 1794. After his death, it was inherited by his nephews, John, Thomas and Evan Morgan, the three surviving sons of his sister, Margaret Morgan, née Jones (c. 1750-1816) who married Thomas Morgan of Swansea, saddler (c. 1750-1819) in 1782.
This Thomas Morgan had made several investments in the early 1800s, purchasing a house and shop adjacent to the Island House (which formerly stood in the middle of Wind Street, Swansea) from Iltid Thomas and a long property fronting on Wind Street (later no. 56) at one end and Fisher Street at the other, from the administrators of the bankrupt Rev. Charles Hill and Elizabeth, formerly Hancorne, née Griffiths, his wife. These were inherited by his three sons and ended up in the hands of Evan Morgan by 1861.
Evan Morgan (1794-1877) married Sarah Catherine Chesshyre (c. 1809-1850), daughter of Rear Admiral John Chesshyre of Mount Pleasant, Swansea, in 1836. At his death on 3 Oct. 1877 he was JP, Honorary Colonel of the Royal Glamorgan Artillery Militia and retired Captain of the Royal Artillery. Of their children, Jeffrey Llewellyn Morgan (1842-1868), Thomas Llewellyn Morgan (1845-1921) and William Edwin Llewellyn Morgan (1846-1927) also served in the army. After retiring from active service in 1888 William was a historian and author of Antiquarian Survey of East Gower. Both he and his brother Thomas were members of the Royal Institution of South Wales, William serving as its president on numerous occasions.
Thomas Llewellyn Morgan married Alice Catherine, daughter of the Rev. William Latham Bevan, vicar of Hay-on-Wye, and Louisa his wife. Their daughter was Sibell Morgan (1891-1983), who in 1924 married Walter Clarkson Mumford (1886-1959), the son of Liverpool brewer George Wright Mumford (1851-1928) and Laura, née Clarkson (1863-1948), also from a Liverpool brewing family. Their two children were twin daughters, Rosemary and Mary Rose (died 27 Oct. 2017), who were born in 1925.
See also Bernard Morris, 'Saint Helen's House, Swansea. A William Butler painting from 1863', in Minerva, vol. 16, 2008/09, and H. V. Bowen, 'John Jones (1751-1828): citizen of Swansea and the world,' Ibid., vol. 18, 2010/11.
