Elizabeth Leigh (chr 1803 - 1888) Descent Chart

Elizabeth VII Leigh

Connection to Elizabeth Leigh's page in the Early Wales web site

Elizabeth Leigh is the daughter of David III Leigh. For information about Elizabeth Leigh, click the connection link to go to her page in our research web site.

DESCENT CHART OF 91. ELIZABETH VII LEIGH

91. ELIZABETH VII LEIGH “Betsy” (chr 3 Jan 1803 Llandeilo-Talybont: died 3 Dec 1888 Llangyfelach: buried Llandeilo-Talybont)
Father 77.DAVID III LEIGH Mother MARY ROBERT
md JOHN GRIFFITHS (chr 2 Apr 1798 Llangyfelach: died 20 Jan 1876 Llandeilo-Talybont) on 23 Feb 1821 at Llandeilo-Talybont

JOHN GRIFFITHS was the son of WILLIAM GRIFFITH II and ANNE HABAKKUK, and was born just outside the parish boundary south of Alltygraban. ANNE’S surname originated when her ancestor gave the name of the obscure Old Testament prophet to his son in about 1660, and it became a (unique) surname in the next generation through the Welsh patronymic system and subsequently became fixed in the English manner. Unless there are male descendants of the branch that went to America in 1905, the name will probably die out in the next generation. ANNE’S ancestry is also interesting in another respect, as her mother’s great-grandmother belonged to the cadet line of a gentry family in Llansamlet parish with a coat of arms, and was the sister of Thomas Popkin, who was an entrepreneur in the development of the coal, copper and iron industries of the area in the early 18th century.

Unfortunately, JOHN’S mother died when he was about 9 months old, and his father married again, moving back to the family home Penderi Fawr near Penllergaer when his father WILLIAM I died in 1809. In recent years, junction 47 of the M4 motorway has been built across its land. JOHN grew up with a growing number of stepbrothers and sisters, and was well integrated into the family, as he named his children after them, with the exception of JOHN, and MARY who was named after ELIZABETH’S mother. His integration was to continue, because his wife ELIZABETH was related to his stepmother, whose brother-in-law John ROBERT II was ELIZABETH’S uncle. There was also a more distant relationship to the Rev. EDMUND LEIGH’S wife ANNE PUGH, as JOHN’S grandmother’s brother Morgan Harry married ANNE PUGH’S niece Catherine Francis. JOHN’S marriage to ELIZABETH LEIGH thus demonstrated that her father’s illegitimacy had not counted against him.

JOHN and ELIZABETH’S first child SARAH was born at her mother’s home Alltygraban, as was the usual practice, but the second child Dafydd was born when they lived at the farmhouse next to the church, which had originally been built as a vicarage. Then when JOHN’S great uncle Rees Harry died in 1824 they took over his farm Pantyffa, just over the parish boundary to the east of Llandeilo-Talybont, and there the rest of their 9 children were born. They were to live there for another 40 years, and it continued to be farmed by their descendants until the 1980s.

Only the first of the children born there was christened in church, and the others were probably christened at Goppa Calvinistic Methodist chapel in Pontarddulais, where JOHN was listed as one of the four deacons in 1857 in the book written in Welsh to celebrate its bicentenary in 1973. JOHN was also noted as an Elder in 1862 in History of the Methodists in West Glamorgan, where the Rev. James Morris noted ‘I know very little about [JOHN]. He lived a long way from the chapel, and old in years, so that in my time he could not attend weekday meetings, and I never heard him speak publicly. He was a good and quiet man who raised a large family, and many of his grandchildren are pillars underneath the cause of various denominations in the districts of Llangyfelach, Morriston and the Swansea Valley.’

ELIZABETH was also a staunch member, as were her cousins in the ROBERT family. She was remembered as turning up at the chapel for the service before the doors opened. One of her great grandchildren had been told that she was tall and slim, kind, but very strict, and she would beat her grandchildren with her stick if they annoyed her or misbehaved. She was hard-working, and was able to goffer (pleat) the decoration around her cap even in old age. Much of this description would apply equally well to other farmer’s wives of the period, but the knowledge brings to life an ancestor who was born 200 years ago. Another great grandchild left a tape recording in which she reported that ELIZABETH had red hair and a quick temper, which is fully in accord with the first description.

In 1866 the family moved to Pengelli in Llandeilo-Talybont parish, and JOHN died there 10 years later and was buried at the church near his wife’s relations. ELIZABETH went to live with her widowed daughter RACHEL at Pantyffa, where she died in 1888 and was laid to rest with her husband. The tombstone inscription is in Welsh. Their many descendants are researched by Derek Williams. Email contact:

Children

SARAH GRIFFITHS (born Alltygraban: chr 9 July 1821 Llandeilo-Talybont: died 8 Nov 1858 Llangyfelach)
Married REES WILLIAMS (born 1821 Llangyfelach: died after 1901) on 8 Aug 1846 at Llangyfelach
Unlike her mother and three sisters SARAH did not marry a man from a farming family. REES WILLIAMS’s father was an engineer at the Dowlais Iron Foundry near Merthyr Tydfil, and had the honour of showing Admiral Lord Nelson around the works. REES himself was a hammerman in Landore in Llangyfelach parish by the river Tawe north of Swansea, which at that time was already heavily industrialised. See the BIOGRAPHY of DAVID III LEIGH.
It was to this industrialized area that SARAH moved from her parents’ Pantyffa farm, and she and REES had five sons, JOHN, Rees, DAVID, WILLIAM, and Thomas, though Rees jun. died as a child. SARAH died of TB in 1858, but REES then appears to have brought up the children on his own, though later he had teenage nieces as housekeepers. In 1861 the 10-year old DAVID was an iron forgeman like his father, JOHN aged 13 was an apprentice engine smith, and WILLIAM and Thomas were at school. By 1881 REES had become a grocer, and later he continued to live in Landore in retirement. In 1891 JOHN was living not far away as a steam engine maker, but DAVID had moved to Pontarddulais, where he was an engineer in the tinworks, and he had 6 children, all of whom were Welsh-speaking according to the census of that year.
Most is known of son WILLIAM. In 1871 he was a pattern maker, but by dint of hard work and private study he achieved a good education at a time when this was not readily available. He became a schoolmaster in Manchester and then a headmaster in Cardiganshire, but he returned to Wales and became a clerk in the tinworks in Pontarddulais, reaching a senior position there and subsequently at the chemical works. In addition he worked as an architect and a surveyor as a sideline, drawing up plans for houses for himself and for relations. He was also an Elder of Swansea Road Presbyterian church, and a Sunday school teacher. One of his interests was astronomy, and he had his favourite stars, and one night during World War II he was found looking out for them during an air raid, quite oblivious to the danger of Nazi bombs.
Most of this information comes from a newspaper article describing the celebration of WILLIAM’S 100th birthday on 16 September 1953. He remembered ‘Betsy’ (ELIZABETH VII LEIGH) as a kind grandmother to him because he and his brothers lost their mother SARAH early in life. His sons CYRIL and SELWYN both studied at Cambridge, CYRIL becoming a senior chemistry master in Nottinghamshire, and SELWYN a doctor in Pontarddulais. His daughters Cordelia and Mabel both married, and they opened a school at their house in Pontarddulais.

William's Hundredth Birthday Party

DAVID GRIFFITHS (born at Llandeilo farm: chr 23 Sep 1823 Llandeilo-Talybont: died after 1841)
ANNE GRIFFITHS (born Pantyffa: chr 15 May 1826 Llangyfelach: died after 1891: buried Nebo Independent chapel, Felindre, Llangyfelach)
md REES JEFFREYS (born 1826 Llandeilo-Talybont: died after 1891) on 24 Nov 1855 Penllergaer, Llangyfelach

REES came from Pencefnarda Isaf, Gorseinon, his parents being REES JEFFREY and ANN CLEMENT and he was ANNE’S fourth cousin once removed through the CLEMENT family. They lived at the 100 acre Gelliwern Isaf near her brother JOHN, just over the parish boundary from Llandeilo-Talybont, and were succeeded there by their son HENRY. They had five children, but one son died aged 7. In 1901 their son JOHN was farming in Llangyfelach parish and their son Edward was a schoolmaster in Swansea. Their daughter ANNE married JOSHUA WILLIAMS, a grocer of Pontarddulais, but by 1901 she was running the shop as a widow, ‘selling a wide variety of goods from print aprons to oil, all of the best quality’.
MARY GRIFFITHS (born 1828 Pantyffa, Llangyfelach: died 11 Oct 1889 Pontarddulais: buried Carmel Baptist chapel, Pontlliw)
md THOMAS WILLIAMS (born 1823 Llangyfelach: died 21 Nov 1893 Pontarddulais: buried Carmel chapel) on 3 Nov 1854 at Llangyfelach.

THOMAS was the son of ROBERT WILLIAMS of Llidiardau (gates) in Llangyfelach parish and MARGARET WALTER, and his forename suggests he may have been descended from the ROBERT family. Before their marriage, MARY and THOMAS sent out printed ‘bidding letters’ to relations requesting wedding gifts, usually in return for gifts made previously by their families, and the copy sent to one of MARY’S cousins has survived.

Bidding Letter

At the time of the 1861 census they were living at a farm near Llidiardau which had been occupied for a time by MARY’S ancestor WILLIAM ROBERT, and their 3 year old daughter was spending the night with MARY’S parents at Pantyffa. Later that year they moved to Brynbach (little hill) close to Pantyffa, and the rest of their 7 children were born there, including their only son ROBERT. In 1881 three of their daughters were away from Brynbach on census night, helping out at relations’ homes, and reducing the demand for space in the farmhouse. ELIZABETH and SARAH were with their married sister MARGARET in Pontarddulais, and ANNE was acting as housekeeper for her widowed uncle REES WILLIAMS in Landore. In the 1880s THOMAS lost money in a financial deal for which he was acting as security, and he had to sell his farm stock and move to a house in Pontarddulais which was owned by his son-in-law DAVID WILLIAMS. MARY died in 1889, and in 1891 THOMAS and his daughter RACHEL were living in Pontarddulais with his married daughter SARAH. THOMAS died in 1893 and is buried with his wife at Carmel Baptist chapel in Pontlliw, south of Pontarddulais. Their eldest daughter MARGARET married JONATHAN WILLIAMS (elder brother of Derek Williams’s grandfather), and in 1891 they were living 2 doors away from her father.
WILLIAM GRIFFITHS V (born 1830 Pantyffa: died after 1901)
md SARAH WILLIAMS (born 1838 Llandeilo-Talybont: died 20 Sep 1888 Llandeilo-Talybont: buried Penllergaer) on 26 June 1868 at Llandeilo-Talybont.
WILLIAM married SARAH Morgan, daughter of THOMAS WILLIAMS, a young widow with two children who ran the Buck Inn in Pontlliw. WILLIAM was shown as the innkeeper in 1871, but by the 1881 census another innkeeper had taken over, and WILLIAM was a labourer living nearby at Buck Cottage with SARAH and their three children and the two stepchildren Another child was born later that year, but SARAH died in 1888 and was buried at Penllergaer. In 1901 WILLIAM was still there as an elderly labourer, and his elder son David was an iron forge hammerman and the younger son Thomas was an iron forge blacksmith, both probably at the Lliw forge. Also with them was his daughter SARAH and her husband REES EVANS, who was a coal miner, and their three children. WILLIAM, REES EVANS, and the 4 year old were described as Welsh-speaking, and the others spoke both languages.
JOHN GRIFFITHS II (born 1832 Pantyffa: died 31 Oct 1895 Pengelli, Llandeilo-Talybont: buried Carmel Baptist chapel, Pontlliw)
md SARAH CLEMENT (born 9 Nov 1830 Llandeilo-Talybont: died 28 Apr 1924 Crwcca, Llangyfelach: buried Carmel chapel) on 17 Feb 1856 at Llangyfelach.

JOHN married SARAH CLEMENT of Twyn farm (hillock) near Pantyffa on the hill above Pontlliw. They were fourth cousins once removed through the CLEMENTS, yet another example of a farmer’s son marrying a related farmer’s daughter. Her parents were HENRY CLEMENT and MARY REES. Three children were born at Twyn, as JOHN did not then have a farm of his own and was helping his brother-in-law THOMAS WILLIAMS on his farm. Soon afterwards the neighbouring farm Crwcca (crooked) became available, and JOHN took the lease, which was retained by his descendants for over 100 years. Three more children were born there. On the southern side the land drops steeply to the Lliw stream, and this may account for the farm’s name. JOHN’S sister ANNE and her husband REES JEFFREYS lived just across the stream at Gelliwern Isaf.

Crwcca Farmhouse

JOHN died in 1895 and is buried at Carmel chapel near the CLEMENT family, but SARAH outlived her husband by nearly 30 years, so her grandnephew John Clement and her grandniece Elsie BEVAN both knew her. John remembered ‘Granny Crwcca’ sitting amply clothed in her bonnet on her big fireside chair wanting to know all the gossip of the neighbourhood. She would encourage the conversation by saying “ac arall?” (and also?). She was stern, religious, and nasty to little boys like him, and would chase them all over the farm. She did not have a sense of humour, and she could not agree with anyone. She did not want any of her children to get married. Fortunately, none of them seems to have inherited her ways. On the other hand, her granddaughter ELSIE SMITH née WILLIAMS found her welcoming when she visited with her parents. Elsie BEVAN said that SARAH’S daughter MARY (Derek Williams’s grandmother) was always ‘dressed to the handle’, and she advised her mother to buy a new outfit because the people attending Carmel chapel were well dressed. The reply was “Why should I bother about people at Carmel?”

Sarah (Clement) Griffiths

SARAH and her sister-in-law Margaret CLEMENT of Twyn opened a sub-chapel of Carmel called Bethesda on the lane passing the two farms. Elsie BEVAN related how the two would arrive early, dressed in their cloaks and hats, and while they were waiting they would chat out loud. This was mainly gossip – ‘Henry heard it at the mart’ – and they would comment on the motives of those involved. Everyone would hear what they were saying. At least it gave the congregation some amusement while they were waiting for the service to begin. SARAH died at 93, and her obituary notice said that she had a gift for relating her reminiscences (another lost source of family history!). The eldest child Rachel died as a baby. The eldest son JOHN CLEMENT GRIFFITHS became a Baptist minister like his cousin Henry CLEMENT, and the second son HENRY GRIFFITHS inherited the lease at Crwcca. The youngest son Thomas became a pharmacist but died at 26 of TB. The youngest daughter SARAH farmed near Pontarddulais after her marriage, and her daughter
MARY married OWEN THOMAS who was a grandson of MARGARET II
LEIGH and thus MARY’S cousin.
SAMUEL GRIFFITHS (born 1835 Pantyffa: died 1920 Dunvant)
md MARGARET EVANS (born 1838 Llannon, Carms.: died 1909 Dunvant) on 14 Apr 1868 at Llandeilo-Talybont.

SAMUEL’S wife MARGARET EVANS lived at Brynyrarad with her parents WILLIAM EVANS and JANE. SAMUEL was then living nearby with his parents at Pengelli in the south of Llandeilo-Talybont parish, and their first son WILLIAM was born there. They lived further south in Dunvant (deep valley) to the west of Swansea, where SAMUEL was a platelayer for the London and North Western Railway, which had just taken over the Swansea-Pontarddulais line from the Llanelli Railway and Dock Company. The line had been opened to passenger traffic in 1867, linking with the line between Llanelli and Llandovery, and had been extended to provide

Samuel and Margaret (Evans) Griffiths

a through route between Swansea and Shrewsbury. Four passenger trains ran each day, the journey taking about 5 hours with a return fare of £1.60 (about £75 or $130 in today’s money), and there were connections to Manchester and Liverpool. In addition there were local trains to Pontarddulais and beyond. The line is still open today, except that in 1964 the Swansea-Pontarddulais section was closed in favour of the route via Llanelli.

By 1881 they had six children, and MARGARET was described as a grocer despite having a 3 month old son and three other children under 7. In 1891 SAMUEL still described himself as a platelayer, but six years earlier he had bought land at an auction of the local estate and had built houses, and in 1893 he was made the first Postmaster of Dunvant. His granddaughter KATIE JEFFREYS (née HOSKIN) said in her tape recording “In his retirement he built shops on the Square, prudently using sand from the bed of the river. With admirable foresight he reasoned that one day [in 1924] there would be a road through to Gowerton.” Some of the stone for rebuilding Ebenezer Congregational chapel was given by SAMUEL, and the Chapel Hall was built on land given by the family. SAMUEL was one of those who sat on the ‘set fawr’ – the big seat. His son SAM junior was also a deacon: his wife was the daughter of a poet and bard who wrote under the name Crugfryn, and they named one of their sons John Leigh GRIFFITHS. SAMUEL junior’s elder brother William was “a pioneering motorist, remembered for driving with the instruction manual on his lap". He took over the Post Office from his father, and in the 1880s, fortunately for us, he had “composed notes derived from earlier conversations with his parents”.
Their granddaughter KATIE JEFFREYS has provided a story about MARGARET EVANS’ father WILLIAM. He came from Carmarthenshire, and was typical of that countryside: literate, particularly in Holy Writ and theology. One of his uncles was a travelling preacher, and a nephew became principal of Bangor Theological College. One day when MARGARET was a little girl, she was accompanying her father to the morning service at Brynteg chapel where he was a deacon. He was wearing his new best hat, and as they walked over the fields his hat blew off. Sorrowfully he retraced his steps, explaining to the little girl that he could not go to chapel when his mind was so evidently full of vanity and pride that he was not fit to meet his Lord.
RACHEL GRIFFITHS (born 14 Sep 1838 Pantyffa: bur 1 July 1912 Brynteg Independent chapel, Gorseinon)
md EVAN JAMES (born 31 Jul 1845 Llandeilo-Talybont: died 12 Nov 1877 Pantyffa) on 15 May 1866 at Llandeilo-Talybont.
RACHEL’S husband EVAN JAMES lived with his parents JAMES and ELIZABETH at Pencefnarda, the next farm to Pengelli, and the couple took over Pantyffa which her parents had not long left. He was skilled in the treatment of sick animals, and was very musical, being involved in classes teaching the solfa tonic scale. They had 6 children, but in 1877 EVAN and his brother John died in a typhoid epidemic. RACHEL’S father had died in the previous year, and her mother BETSY (DAVID III LEIGH’S daughter) went to live with her. BETSY died in 1888, but RACHEL also cared for her uncle David GRIFFITHS who died in 1890 at the age of 83. Two of RACHEL’S daughters, ELIZABETH and MARY, married in 1899, and RACHEL later went to live with ELIZABETH and family in Pontlliw, leaving Pantyffa to be farmed by MARY’S husband. In the next generation, MARY’S son EVAN ANTHONY married RACHEL ROBERTS, a cousin who was a descendant of EVAN ROBERT and SARAH MORGAN and who at that time was living at Llandremor Fach. ELIZABETH’S daughter Elsie BEVAN provided many family reminiscences, and ELIZABETH’S grandson John BEVAN was head of public services at the Welsh national folk museum at St Fagans and later at the National Museum in Cardiff. Another of RACHEL’S descendants is Leighton JAMES the soccer player, who gained 54 caps for Wales.
HENRY GRIFFITHS (born 1842 Pantyffa: died after 1891)
md MARY EVANS (born 1851 Llandeilo-Talybont: died after 1891) on 11 Sep 1876 at Llandeilo-Talybont.

HENRY married MARY EVANS, whose sister MARGARET had married HENRY’S brother SAMUEL, and he continued to farm Pengelli after his father’s death. They had three children, David, John and Margaret, but they were no longer at Pengelli in 1901, and nothing further is known of them.
SOURCES USED
1. Parish records of Llandeilo-Talybont and Llangyfelach.
2. Inscriptions on graves at Llandeilo-Talybont church and Carmel chapel.
3. 1841-1901 census returns for Llandeilo-Talybont and Llangyfelach.
4. History of the Methodists in West Glamorgan by the Rev. W. Samlet Williams (August 1916), English translation by Ivor Griffiths and published privately by him ca. 1990.
5. Tape recording made by KATIE JEFFREYS for her nephew circa 1978 and copied for Derek Williams in 1994.
6. Oral testimony provided to Derek Williams by Elsie BEVAN in 1993-5.
7. John Clement (private communication).
8. Burial certificate for Sarah Williams from the Swansea Registrar.
9. Article about WILLIAM WILLIAMS’s 100th birthday celebration in Llwchwr Gazette for September 1953.
10. Obituary notices, in Welsh, were given by various family members without precise sources.
11. Article on bidding letters by D. Emrys Williams in Welsh Family History: A Guide to Research, published by the Association of Family History Societies of Wales, 1993.
12. Dunvant: Portrait of a Community by Gareth Evans, published by his Stowefields Publications in Staffordshire in 1992.
13. The Habakkuks by Derek Williams, Glamorgan Family History Society Journal No. 70, June 2003, pages 32-35.
14. From Habakkuk to Popkin (Part 1) by Derek Williams, Glamorgan Family History Society Journal No. 74, June 2004, pages 9-13; (Part 2), No. 75, September 2004, pages 36-41
15. Landownership Changes in a Glamorgan Parish, 1750-1850: The Case of Llangyfelach by Jeff Childs in Morgannwg, XXXVIII, 1994, pages 42-87.
16. Glamorgan County History, Volume V, (1980) pages 18, 26, 27.