Pentre Mawr Deeds and Documents

A collection of 89 items consisting mainly of title deeds and other documents relating to properties in Aberchwiler, Eglwys-bach, Llandyrnog (including the townships of Corfedwen and Tre'r-llan), and Ysbyddyd, co. Denbighshire and the parishes of Christ Church and St. Martin's, London and Yeldham, co. Essex.

Genealogists appear to have passed by Pentre Mawr, and therefore these documents have been used to reconstruct the history of the estate and of its various tenants from the 16th century down to the middle of the 19th.

It is the Gethins, a junior branch of the Cerniogau family, who can be first associated with Pentre Mawr in Llandyrnog and Eglwys-bach, Denbighshire. An Edward Gethin described as from Aberchwilar, begins in 1619 to take an interest in properties in the township of Corfedwen. By 1646 he appears to have laid the foundations of a small landed estate. This was consolidated by his son John Gethin, a clerk in holy orders and a Master of Arts of Queen's College, Cambridge, who at the commencement of the Civil Wars was Rector of Llangybi in Eifionydd, and later in Aberdaron in Lleyn. By the end of the 17th century, however the Gethins have vanished from the scene. The last reference to them is in a deed of March 17, 1684/5 (ms 37), whereby Edward Gethin of Llandyrnog, gent, John Gethin's son, signs a one-year lease to a Peter Evans of London, merchant, of lands in Corfedwen, Llandyrnog and Lleweni. There is little means of identifying this Peter Evans however a few facts are known. It is known that he was a "citizen and fishmonger of London," that he acquired in 1680 the lease of the Ship Tavern in the Old Bailey (no.32), that inm addition to the Gethin lands he had also secured control of other messuages in Corvedwen and its neighbourhood, including the "capital messuage called Pentre" (mss 34, 47). He died in 1701 leaving a wife, Elizabeth, and a son and heir, John.

John Evans is described as of Llandyrnog in 1719 (ms 47) and later as of Whistones in the county of Worcester. He also appears to have connections with Pennsylvania and there is proof enough in the documents that he possessed property in that state (ms 58) and that he was an associate of William Penn the younger (ms 45). After his death in 1745, Pentre Mawr passed to his elder daughter Rebecca Parry and then to her daughter Mary Anne, who married a man called Ignatius Purcell of Crumlin in co. Dublin. Under the Purcells, judging by the number of mortgage transactions that are to be found in the collection between the years 1773 and 1792, the history of the estate was far from stable. And, by the end of the latter year a Richard Edmunds has emerged as mortgagee of Pentre Mawr.

He was the son of Richard Edmunds of Llandyrnog and grandson of John Edmunds of Bangor Iscoed in Maelor Saesneg, Flintshire, who by his marriage with the daughter of one Richard Williams of Llandyrnog, had acquired a footing in the township of Tre'r Llan. Then in October 1805, Richard Edmunds assigns his mortgage of Pentre Mawr to Robert Williams, merchant (grocer) of St. Brides, Chester, father of the Rev. Edmund Williams, and great-grandfather of the present owner of Pentre Mawr.

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Estate records of the families of Williams, Jones, and Jones-Bateman of Pentre Mawr, parish of Abergele, co. Denbigh, 1575-1867 at the National Library of Wales. Schedule [1947], 42pp. Annual Report of the National Library of Wales , 1946-47, p.36. Access Points