Documentation relating to the right-of-way at Treddafydd

Document DIN/112 is the brief for the defendant, but quotes the indictment in full, which accused W.H. of stopping up the highway running from Newport (Pem.) to Haverfordwest, at a place called Vydir or Voidir Las between Parc-y-buarth and Parc Gwyn (both Higgon property) and thus prevented Mrs. Miller to bring turf, furze, and other fuel from the waste land.

It comes out that Mrs. Miller lived at Treddafydd Isa, Higgon at Treddafydd Ucha, that Mrs. Miller was Higgon's niece (daughter of either th Mary or Dorothy Higgon mentioned in the will of John Higgon, the elder, DIN/106), that Mrs. Miller inherited from her brother Owen Lewis, and he from the John Thomas of Treddafydd [Isa], who was one of the feofees in trust in the marriage-settlement of WIlliam Higgon himself in 1724 (DIN/107); by the time of this case in 1773, W.H. is described as "an Easy man and above the age of 80 years," but vigorous enough to put up this obstruction of a ditch and hedge in April of that year. The brief is full of interest in that it analyses the story of the Treddafydd messuages (Ucha and Isa) from the last quarter of the 17th century onwards, not forgetting the Pakington lease of 1740 and the purchase of 1763. A good deal of time was spent in trying to prove that there was no recognised road from Newport to Treddafydd, that this "stopping" of 1773 was only the last of several other attempts - to support which the testimony of half-a-dozen "ancient inhabitants" was brought forward. Incidentally, there is a disparaging description of Newport as it was in 1773, with its negligible fairs and its poor fishermen, and a more optimistic account of Dinam [Cross], where occasionally Treddafydd people went to fetch loads of lime. Quite as interesting as any are the remarks of counsel on the margins of the brief and also on the dorse. The upshot of the case is not given, but it is unlikely that these papers would have been so lonf preserved in the family if the defendant had lost. The other papers consist of a clear plan of the locus in cuo, drawn by a Richard Jones in August.

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