Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

gircteattfjjia €mbrtn%iin* FIFTH SERIES.—VOL. VII, NO. XXVI. APRIL 1890. GLIMPSES OF THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF GLAMORGAN IN THE TUDOR PERIOD. BY DAVID JONES, ESQ. {Read at Coicbridge Meeting, August 1888.) We obtain our glimpses of life in Glamorganshire in the sixteenth century from that treasury of somewhat unworked material in the Star Chamber Proceedings, preserved in the Public Record Office. As a back¬ ground to the pictures presented to you, I would ask you to recall to mind that in the eighth year of Henry VII the lordship of Glamorgan became merged in the possessions of the Crown, and so continued through the reign of his son and successor. The ad¬ ministration was in the hands of a deputy with officers of various grades under him. In the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII, when the King's necessities urged him to raise money by almost any means, when manors and lands were leased out, granted, and sold on a large scale, and "good penn'orths" were to be had at the King's hands for the seeking, by those who knew how, it is evident, from a study of the Star Chamber Proceedings and other docu¬ ments of the time, that there were men in Glamorgan¬ shire who saw in the state of the times an opportunity for raising their fortunes. Some of these were modestly 5th see. vol. vii. 6