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LINE OF 64 OAKLEY II LEIGH
CONTINUING IN 8th GENERATION OF LEIGHS
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144. MARGARET ?LEIGH (? - aft 20 Apr 1846 w.p.).
Father: 134. WATKIN I LEIGH
md EVAN DAVIES (? - aft 1839), watchmaker
MARGARET married EVAN DAVIES and lived with her father at
Penbaily, and though illegitimate she inherited the
farm from him.
152. WATKIN DAVIES (born abt
1839 Cellan – 1 Mar 1902 Llansawel)
md ANN UNKNOWN (born abt 1838 Lampeter – 2 Mar 1906 Llansawel)
WATKIN DAVIES continued to live at Penbaily. He
and his wife ANN had six children including three sons who became
clergymen in the Church of Wales, one emigrating to Australia.
145. WATKIN II LEIGH (chr 20
Mar 1796 Lampeter: died 21 Nov 1851 Llansawel).
Father: 135. GEORGE
LEIGH
md SARAH RODERICK (born abt 1803: died 31 May 1870
Llansawel) in 1839 in Lampeter
WATKIN and SARAH
lived at Porth in Llansawel, this being his share of Baily Gwastad, but
he died only a year after his father while their children were still
young. The investigation of SARAH’s ancestors, whose surname may have
taken the Welsh form ‘RHYDDERCH’, would be a good research project for
one of her descendants.
153. WILLIAM V LEIGH (born abt
1845, chr 31 Aug 1849: died 25 May 1914 Llansawel)
md ANN VI LEIGH (chr 25 Apr 1844 Llanddewi Brefi: died 20 Jul 1919
Llansawel) 16 Nov 1872 at Llansawel
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In 1872 WILLIAM married his first cousin 155.ANN LEIGH,
the daughter of his uncle OAKLEY VI, but they already had two children
who were living with her and her father at Bailitew. After their
marriage they lived at the 70 acre Castell (castle) farm, Llansawel,
which WILLIAM had bought for £1,200 (NLW D.T.M.Jones (5) 3841), and
subsequently they also owned or leased 7 other farms in the parish.
Unfortunately, he lost his lands by becoming surety for a distant
relative who emigrated to America and set himself up in Florida, and
they moved to the 25 acre Bryngwynbach (little white hill) in
Llansawel village, where WILLIAM died in 1914. His obituary in the
Carmarthen Journal said that he was a member of a very old and
respected family who had owned many farms in the parish, and he was a
faithful communicant at Llansawel church. Ann moved to the Red Lion
Inn with her daughter, also named Ann, and she died there in 1919.
WILLIAM and ANN had ten children,
William VI, Ann VII, WATKIN III, George II, SARAH, Mary IV, DAVID VI,
Elizabeth, OAKLEY VII, and ELEANOR, though George died as a baby, and
Ann VII died a year after her mother aged 50. Most of the other
children moved to the Ammanford area, 15 miles to the south, which had
developed as a town with the coming of industry. This is only a few
miles from Llanedi where
EDMUND LEIGH and his son DANIEL had lived, and also a few miles from Pontarddulais and Bettws where descendants of EDMUND’S son
DAVID III
LEIGH lived.
The family historian VON LEIGH
and her husband NOEL WATCYN WILLIAM LEIGH, son of DAVID VI, still live
in Ammanford. Other descendants of WILLIAM and ANN through their son
WATKIN III are JOHN LEWIS and the brothers RICHARD
GARY DAVIES, DAVID WARREN and STUART
LEIGH-DAVIES. |
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Ann VI Leigh and a granddaughter |
154. MARY IV LEIGH (born abt 1847: died 23 June 1868 Llansawel)
Mary died aged 21 two years before her mother
SARAH.
150. OAKLEY VI LEIGH (chr 21 Jun 1810 Pencarreg - 1878 Llansawel)
md ANN BOWEN (chr 1824 Cellan – 1 Feb 1859 Llansawel) on 6 Dec 1843 in
Llanddewi Brefi
ANN was the daughter of JOHN BOWEN, blacksmith, and ANNE of Pentrefelin
in Cellan, the parish to the north east of Lampeter. When they married,
ANN’S address was Tynlon in Llanddewi Brefi parish, further to the north
east, and they christened their four children in both parishes, OAKLEY
being described as a labourer or miner of Godreallt (foot of the
hillside). His father died in 1850, and they went to live at Bailitew
(fruitful courtyard) in Llansawel, which he had inherited.
155. ANN LEIGH (chr 25 Apr 1844
Llanddewi Brefi: died 20 Jul 1919 Llansawel)
md WILLIAM V LEIGH (born abt 1845, chr 31 Aug 1849: died 25 May 1914
Llansawel) 16 Nov 1872 at Llansawel
As we have seen, ANN married her
first cousin 153. WILLIAM LEIGH, the son of WATKIN II.
156. Watkin IV LEIGH (chr 2 Aug
1846 Llanddewi Brefi – aft 1861)
157. THOMAS V LEIGH (chr 28 Oct
1849 Llanddewi Brefi – died 1907 Skewen)
md ELLEN ELIZABETH TASKER (born 1855 Swansea – June 1936 Skewen)
1883 at St Peter’s, Swansea
THOMAS worked in the copper
industry in Skewen, between Swansea and Neath. His wife ELLEN was
the daughter of WILLIAM HENTON TASKER, who was a shipwright in
Swansea but had been born in Haverfordwest, and his wife MARGARET
nee HOWELL. They had three daughters, Edith Ellen, ANNIE ELIZABETH,
and GLADYS SOPHIA, and three sons, William Thomas who was a manager
in the chemical industry in Runcorn, Oakley Edward who was fitter in
the local foundry but died at 31, and Arthur John who was an
engineering draughtsman in Manchester. None of the sons had
children, so the Leigh surname ended in this line. ANNIE married
ARTHUR THOMAS JONES of Llandeilo, and her daughter HELEN GEORGENE
(GENE) HETHERINGTON also became a family historian in the LEIGH and
OAKLEY lines. She remembers her grandmother ELLEN as a severe person
for whom life was earnest and grim, and drink was the fount of all
evil, and she was surprised that a son had been given the unusual
name of Oakley. It was only after she had traced the family history
that she realised that he was the last of seven generations to bear
that name, and that it was not an uncharacteristic touch of
frivolity on her stern grandmother’s part.
158. JOHN IX LEIGH (chr 25 Sep
1850 Llanddewi Brefi – aft 1919)
md HANNAH UNKNOWN
JOHN married HANNAH from Newcastle
Emlyn, Carmarthenshire, and worked in the tinworks in Swansea. They
had two sons, David and Samuel. The latter was reported missing at
the famous and tragic battle of Gallipoli in the First World War.
unmd LETITIA HARRIS
After ANN’S death, OAKLEY VI had a
son DAVID VII by Letitia Harries of Penybont, and in 1861 he was
living at Bailitew with his five children. Ten years later he was
still accompanied by two of his children, ANN and JOHN, and by ANN’s
children William II and Ann VII.
159. DAVID VII
LEIGH (born 1860 Llansawel – aft 1901)
md LETITIA UNKNOWN
DAVID married LETITIA from Llanybydder parish near Lampeter, and in
1901 they were living with their four children Sarah, Margretta,
Rachel and James near Llandeilo, where he was a labourer. Nothing
further is known of this family.
Sources: A Narrative of the Leigh
Family, 1989, by Von Leigh. Oakley Leigh of Lampeter, ca.
1989, by Gene Hetherington. Sale catalogue and agreement of William
Leigh: D.T.M.Jones (5) 3841, at the National Library of Wales,
Aberystwyth. Bishop’s Transcripts for Llanddewi Brefi and Cellan.
Census returns for 1861, 1871, and 1901.