"A Caernarvonshire Scrap Book, 1818-1823"

This material is held atArchifdy Prifysgol Bangor / Bangor University Archives

  • Reference
    • GB 222 BMSS/3592
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1818-1823
  • Physical Description
    • 151 items

Scope and Content

(i)1-5 Llanbeblig parish affairs : reports of Select Vestries and abstracts of parish accounts. The most piquant is 3, a copy of the five resolutions (5 January 1818) passed by the London Gwyneddigion Society in condemnation of the appointment of "a young gentleman only in Deacons orders" and with little, if any, knowledge of Welsh, to be vicar of the populous parish of Llanbeblig - he was the Rev. J.W.Trevor who later became Chancellor of the Diocese of Bangor.

(ii)6-11Caernarvon Borough Affairs, especially the accounts of the Town Stewards for 1820-1 (9), the proposal to erect baths (8), and the very interesting list of ratepayers (10) qualified to serve on Juries (n.d., but probably 1824).

(iii)12-56 Caernarvon tradesmen's advertisements. A variegated assortment - Dillon the seedsman with his catalogues (17-19); Owen Griffith of Tryfan and his safety-truss (21-22); Hyman the licenced hawker (29); Jones of Holyhead and his "sinew ointment" (33); O.&W. Jones "wholesale snuff manufacturers" (36). Some from Bangor have crept in, such as Thomas Rathbone the chemist (44), R. Thomas of the Penrhyn fish-weir (49), and F.Journet, "Professor of the French Language, Drawing, and Fencing" (34,35).

(iv)57-59Coronation festivities (George IV) at Caernarvon, August 1821 : the town's loyal address, the public dinner and general holiday. Posters and a specimen ticket for the dinner (59).

(v)60-67 Affairs of the Caerns. Agricultural Society. Very interesting are the lists of premiums (64) for the best stock in the county - to be exhibited at the various fairs of Pwllheli, Caernarvon, Conway and Bangor (May-June, 1821-) and the arrangements for the Spring Ploughing Matches in 1821 and 1822 (65, 67).

(vi)68-86 The Caernarvon Cymmrodorion Eisteddfod (Sept, 1821) In this section are preserved the lists of donations and subscriptions, the "prospectus", programmes of concerts, posters for "the Congress of Bards and Minstrels","the Contest of Harpers and Singers" to be held in ths Castle, and the Oratorio to be performed in St. Mary's Chapel on Friday morning Sept. 14. There are also six specimen tickets, with the bardic couplet on each:

Ar gynnydd beunydd y bo

Blaid Awen yn blodeuo.

(vii)87-101 Relating to education, almost all. Beginnings of the National School at Caernarvon, 1819-20 (87-92); commercial academy of Mr and Mrs J. Day in Greengate Street (93-94); boarding school for young ladies at Penrhos Bradwen by Holyhead (95); re-opening of John Jones's school at Tydweiliog (96); prospectus of Parry's school at Pwllheli (97-99); rules of the Pwllheli Reading Society (100).

(viii)102-112 Auxiliary Bible Society at Caernarvon, Pwllheli - posters, notices & c. Item 112 is a printed tract headed Cynghorion difrifol i bennau teuluoedd, ac eraill a all fod mewn tylodi, distributed (if not composed) by Thomas Jones of Bryntirion, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Local Bible Society in 1821(cp. 105,106).

(ix)113-141Matters of Law and Order, such as injunctions relating to salmon fishing, to damaging of fences and orchards, to depredations at Morfa Saint; orders affecting the Assize of Bread; rewards posted for stealing mares, geldings, hay, bank-notes, & c. Much the more interesting are the rewards offered in a Welsh poster (117) by Cymdeithas Eifionydd er Cospi Lladron, established March 23, 1818, with Ellis Owen Cefn-y-Meysydd as one of its members, much of whose proceedings are recorded in Bangor MS. 83; and the ultra-facetious notice (118) pub. on 12 April 1819, waxing sarcastic at the expense of the heir of Gwydr (The Hon. Peter Burrell) and his legal advisers who had lost a case at the Caerns. Great Sessions (it is almost certain that the hidden hand behind this item 118 was Dr. O.O.Roberts, then a vivacious young man at Llanrwst).

Item 119 witnesses Dillon the Caernarvon seedsman and coach -proprietor up in arms against opposition from Bangor ; there is a threat to run a car called the Prince of Wales in opposition to his Struggler (not a very happy name). He appeals for renewed support to a liberal and discerning public (May 4 1820).

(x) 142-146 Mainly orders and forms for the Militia Lists.

(xi)147 A somewhat rare poster entitled Tre-madoc Embankment Jubilee during the dates September 17-19, 1811, advertising the roasting of an ox upon the Cob, races, and an Eisteddfod, with a silver cup to the best Welsh Poet and another to the best Welsh harper. "Also Plays, Balls, &c. in the Evening".

(xii)149 Another rare item, the printed copy of a letter from Isaac Harding Harris (the sometime scurrilous editor of the Bangor Figaro the Second) to a prominent Caernarvon tradesman named Richard Owen, detailing the intrigues against him of other Caernarvon drapers, and adding their names (April 29 1847), with a malicious addendum that he understood some of these plotters were members of the respectable sect called Calvinistic Methodists. For a reference to this screed, see Journal Welsh Bibliog. Soc., V, 227.

(xiii)150-151 These are of a later date, and seem to be witty effusions of the late Mr.M.T.Morris of Caernarvon, enterprising business man, editor of the Nelson, and ardent Eisteddfodwr. Date, about 1906.

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