Whatmore Family History

 Joseph Whatmore (1843 -1915), my great grandfather, married Esther Manuel in Sheffield in 1873. Esther’s ancestors came from the parish of Trefeglwys in mid-Wales and we believe that  her earliest known ancestor was Dafydd Manuel the Welsh poet.  It is remarkable what we have discovered about Dafydd so hopefully this post should be of  interest not only to the descendants of Joseph Whatmore and Esther, but also to other readers.

If  I am correct about my direct descent from the Welsh bard Dafydd Manuel, then he is my great x 8 grandfather. We knew little about him until recently, but gradually we have been piecing together information about his life although much remains speculative.

In a previous post I speculated about the possible Spanish origins of Dafydd Manuel’s ancestors. Whilst he may have been descended from a Spanish sailor shipwrecked on the Irish coast after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, a more prosaic local origin for his forebears has been researched by my distant cousin Gwyneth Davies of Bridgnorth and I find her conclusions persuasive.

Hereditary surnames were only just evolving in mid –Wales in the early to mid seventeenth century, and those adopted were very often patronymic e.g. John Davies or John son of David. This is mirrored in England at an earlier period – John Davidson or John son of David. These patronymic Welsh surnames are often obscured  by ellipsis (omission of letters) and by mutation in the Welsh language whereby the first consonant is changed into a softer one  e.g. John mab Rhys  (John son of Rhys) becomes  John ‘ap Rhys  becomes John Pryse.

The Welsh at this time were fond of Biblical first names and, although not common, Emanuel was one of these. In Trefeglwys parish where Dafydd Manuel lived, we find in the parish register:

1633 Oct 13 Dorothy fil Emanuel Edward was bap.

1638 April 11 Sarah fil Emmanuel Lloyd was bap.

Dorothy and Sarah may have later been known as Dorothy Manuel and Sarah Manuel. Indeed one of these may have been the sister of our Dafydd Manuel.

An adoption of Manuel as a surname in this part of Montgomeryshire in the mid-seventeenth century would explain the apparent lack of this surname in the earlier records and would suggest that the ancestors of Dafydd Manuel were both local and fully Welsh. 

Additional evidence for Dafydd Manuel descending from Welsh stock is found in his letter to Edward Lhuyd of 10 December 1698. (See below) Dafydd refers to ‘these ignorant parts’ and seems to indicate that this is due to ‘Saxons’ settling locally. (i.e the reference to Hengist and Horsa and Rowena. Hengist and Horsa were supposedly the first Saxons to arrive in Britain and were allowed to settle, Rowena, daughter of Hengist being given in  marriage to Vortigen the British leader. ) Dafydd is writing to another Welsh man and this satirical comment would only be appropriate if Dafydd regarded himself of being of British/Welsh stock. He would hardly comment adversely on settlers coming in from elsewhere if he were himself of Spanish descent.  The ‘Saxon’ settlers included the Ashton and Bennett families from Derbyshire who had settled in Trefeglwys parish  in the time of Elizabeth the First as the result of an agreement between Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester who had been given the overlordship of this part of Montgomeryshire, and the Earl of Shrewsbury who had landless tenants in Derbyshire.

There seems to be no link between this Manuel family and those who are found very much earlier in Scotland and in Cornwall and these other Manuel families may well have had a Spanish origin.

 This speculative chart attempts to link together all the early Manuels in the Trefeglwys area.

Tradition tells us that our Dafydd Manuel was over a hundred years old when he was buried at Trefeglwys on 16 May 1726. At that time, however, any very elderly man tended to claim to be over a hundred, so we should perhaps treat this tradition with suspicion. It may well be that he was somewhat older than his wife Margaret who was buried at Trefeglwys in 1699. A Margaret fil David Emanuel was baptised at Trefeglwys on 7 March 1686 and whilst stories about our Dafydd do not refer to a daughter of this name, since there only seems to have been one Manuel family in the parish at that time, Margaret is surely part of our family. If this is correct and Margaret was the last child, born when her mother Margaret was about 45, this puts the birth of Dafydd Manuel’s wife at about 1641. To allow Dafydd time for his bardic activities which involved travelling around the local noble families, we should perhaps make Dafydd some ten years old than his wife, being born about 1631. This would make him about 95 when he died.

We know for certain that Dafydd and Margaret Manuel had a son called Deio (David), a daughter called Malen (Mary) and a daughter called Ann. We may speculate that Dafydd and Margaret married about 1668 (when Dafydd would be 37 and Margaret 27) and that Deio was born about 1669, Ann about 1671, Malen about 1675 and Margaret (from the baptism) in 1686.  There were probably other children who did not survive to adulthood.

By the time the children were growing up, Dafydd seems to have been living as a farmer as there are stories of him taking corn to the mill to be ground and of him driving pigs to market. These stories indicate that Dafydd had his own farm or small holding and this was the messuage of Byrdir on the estate of Gwernafon at Llawr-y-Glyn in the parish of Trefeglwys, a few miles north of Llanidloes in mid-Wales. The stories were published in Volume 5 of ‘Y Brython’ and I am most grateful to Iwan Meical Jones of the National Library of Wales for providing the following translation:

‘One time while travelling through a forest commonly called the Allt Wen he came across the head of a child and said:‘

A dreadful thing, I found a head to the cold hair on the White hill, a bald head without cap or cloth, and its owner had the same respect, his wild blood cold on the White Hill.’ 

Dafydd  Manuel had a son and  a daughter; the son’s thought processes were not very strong. The father wanted to awaken the inspiration of the muse in his children, and it is said the daughter did have some small grasp of it. The children were commonly called Deio and Malen. The old man and his children were once taking wheat to the mill to be ground and on the way Deio said, ‘Daddy you are always babbling about poetry with Malen; I will beat her rotten.’ At that, down came the load from Malen’s head; and the old man, sittting down and looking at the millwheel, said, ‘Well now, all of us put two arms to it to make a “cywydd deuair hirion’  [a complex poetic form].‘To the mill and its useful machinery, that makes noise in the water there.’And then Deio offered up:‘If the mill stops turning Sion and Cadi will shut up.’He meant the miller and his wife. And then Malen tried and said:‘It fills and gladdens every hand, dust of the mill, it grinds silently.’And the father answered and said:‘At this time I will hide my opinion by being silent.’ 

It is said the old poet rhymed the following lines as an insult to some of the inhabitants of the parish of: ‘Llangurig, a mountainous place, where I stayed and found them, between children of Hades and mad chicks, chislers  and beggars of the world.’

 As the old man and his daughter were driving pigs to Llanidloes fair, a poet of Llangurig was told they were coming. He went to meet them at the tollhouse as they were passing it, and said:‘Send the best pig  with the pin in his head to the top of the town.’Malen the daughter answered: [perhaps she had a pin in her hair]‘Not a pin despite the length of the head [long-headed =intelligent]. Truly , Sir, it is just a wire.’And the man replied to her response:‘Devil take you and your offspring’  

In June this year, a group of descendents of Dafydd Manuel including myself, visited Gwernafon Farm. The current farmhouse was built in the nineteenth century, but we were able to visit what remains of the original farm house which certainly dates back to the time of our ancestor. This would originally have been a ‘long house’ with the animals housed at one end and the living quarters at the other. Although the original front wall has been taken down and replaced by unsightly breeze blocks, the original timber work remains in place inside. Dafydd Manuel would certainly have known this building although all trace of his own home, ‘Byrdir’ has long since disappeared. Gwernafon was originally known as ‘Pandy Charles’ indicating that a weaving mill was located there.

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The old farm house at Gwernafon which would have been known to Dafydd Manuel     Copyright: Rhys Whatmore

Iwan Meical Jones, of the National Library of Wales, explains that ‘Dafydd Manuel’s period was a low point for Welsh poetry and literature. The old bardic traditions had declined and very few landed families sponsored poets and musicians in the way that once had been required, nor did the church provide employment  for literate Welshmen in the way it once had done. All bishops and most clergymen were English and few spoke Welsh. Welsh poetry declined from something encouraged by courts and landowners to being the entertainment of peasants and farmers. In these bleak circumstances the work of printers and publishers such as Thomas Jones and Sion Rhydderch was invaluable. Dafydd Manuel was one of the very few people who kept Welsh literature alive during very dark times, and he was one of the leading Welsh literacy figures of his time’.

In an article on Dafydd Manuel’ published in ‘Llen Cymru Volume VI (1960 –61), Garfield H Hughes states that ‘ Dafydd Manuel was  a good example of the poets of that age, and his work represents testimony of the state of the Welsh strict metre poetry of his time, in its decline since the loss of patronage. At its best, Dafydd Manuel’s poetry is simple, concise and effective, but his efforts to meet the rules of cynghanedd sometimes hinders the flow of his poetry and clouds his meaning. His most famous poem is the macraronic cywydd which satirises greedy Welsh litigants and scheming English lawyers.’

Poem by Dafydd Manuel published in ‘Blodeugerdd’ published in 1759 by David Jones.  Image reproduced from the copy in the National Library of Wales

There is much evidence that Dafydd Manuel was in close touch with many of the leading figures of his time. He took part in the eisteddfodic  meetings held by Sion Rhydderch and his circle and  knew Thomas Jones, the almanac maker, bookseller, printer and publisher who eventually settled at Shrewsbury  and who played an important part in the revival of Welsh literature.  It is believed that the first book printed in Welsh at Shrewsbury was Thomas Jones’ ‘Carolau a Dyriau Duwiol’ published in 1695. This contains a poem by Dafydd Manuel in which he expresses his horror at the possibility  of William and Mary’s Protestant kingdom being overturned.

 Image reproduced from ‘ The Book Trade in Shropshire’ by Llewelyn G Lloyd  published in ‘Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society’ Volume XLVIII 1934-1935.

Of great interest is Dafydd Manuel’s association with Edward Lhuyd  who was a naturalist, botanist, linguist, geographer and antiquary who travelled widely in the British Isles and kept up a correspondence with many local informants in his search for  information about natural history and the history of the British people. Edward Lhuyd was appointed Assistant Keeper at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford in 1684 and became Keeper in 1690. It seems likely that Edward Lhuyd met Dafydd Manuel on one of his many visits to Wales. We know of at least two letters which Dafydd Manuel sent to him.  The first of  these is dated 10 December 1698 and is a reply to a letter which Edward Lhuyd had sent him. Whilst Dafydd’s letter is difficult to read, it is clear that Edward had previously asked him to carry out some research the results of which Dafydd presumably enclosed with his letter.  Dafydd regrets that he cannot do more to help and satirises the English settlers in Trefeglwys to whom he onviously feels superior.

 Ashmolean Ms 1820a   Copyright: The Bodleian Library, Oxford and reproduced here by their kind permission

The letter reads as follows:

Trefeglwys   10  12  98

Worthy Sir

Your letter I received of Mr Henrys and I have done what you see but to get any perfection in such things is very difficult in our ignorant parts where Hengist and Horsa and  Rowena have settled their friends.

I hope you will be pleased to pardon such an untaxable and illiterate …… as my offer, there liveth no creature more willing to promote this work than I am if I knew how and doubt not but a man of manners and judgement than yourself will be pleased to accept the will for the deed.

Your faithful and humble servant

David Manuel

Dafydd Manuel’s other letter is dated 12 December 1698 – only two days after his previous correspondence and this time he provides information about the house in Trefeglwys parish called Talgarth. He describes the house as ‘ a sumptious hall built by Mr David Lloyd the owner thereof Anno 166-‘ This fine house still exists and has recently been restored.

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Talgarth in the parish of Trefeglwys. This house was the subject of one of Daydd Manuel’s letters to Edward Lluyd.  Copyright: Rhys Whatmore

Of Dafydd Manuel’s children, we know that Malen (Mary) became a famous harpist and one of the harp tunes that she especially liked was named after her. We also believe that Deio (David) was the father of the David Manuel (son of a David and Anne Manuel) who was baptised at Trefeglwys on 17 February  1690 and that this David was in turn the father of David Manuel (born about 1724), John Manuel (born about 1730) and Levi Manuel (born 1734) – the founders of the three Manuel families of Trefeglwys  from which all the later Manuels of mid-Wales descend.

Dafydd Manuel is of special significance to me, not only because he was a well-known poet, but because my own middle name ‘David’ commemorates my great great uncle David Manuel who was very good to my father, and whose own name may well commemorate that of his famous Welsh ancestor.