T199 – Title to Goytrey House 1864

T199

Letter from Goytrey House January 11th 1864.

Dear Sir, in reply to your letter of the 31st inst., I gladly avail myself of the opportunity of detailing the circumstances connected with the title to the Goytrey property.

By will of my Grandfather dated 10th March 1799 his property was bequeathed to his children, to be converted into money on the youngest coming of age and an equal division made.

In the year 1822 the division of my Grandfathers property took place- when all the parties interested executed a conveyance to my father and he became the purchaser; and to receive part of the purchase money he mortgaged the property to his mother and sisters, Lucy, Fanny, Maria and Charlotte.

The account numbered 1 Details the above arrangement as referring to one sister, Dorothy Charlotte, a copy or similar account having been placed in the hands of each mortgagee (my aunt Mrs Marriott having had her own copy). – My father having paid off my uncle George in full and some of the other legatees in part.

My father died in Ceylon on the 3rd April 1829, leaving his property to his wife in trust for his children. A copy of his will is enclosed numbered 2.

An agreement was negotiated, by which it was intended that some of the mortgagees, viz; my grandmother, aunts Lucy and Dorothy Charlotte should become the purchasers for £3000 – the document setting this forth in full (number 3)

The mortgagees however refused to notify the proposed agreement preferring to put the mortgage in suit and accordingly filed a Bill in Chancery. Mr Waddington, as agent, or trustee for the mortgagees being the party who in law took proceedings.

The document (no 4) is a copy of the minutes of the decree of the Court of Chancery followed by other orders &c.

No 5 is the account of Mr Waddington the mortgagee in possession by trust and on behalf of the family – in account current with my father’s estate showing a balance due to the mortgagees of £2385-7-6. This account formed the foundation on which the proceedings were taken.

I also send for your information the advertisement of the sale of the property by auction (no. 6.) The sale was made and the purchase affected by Alexander Waddington as trustee for the mortgagees. There being no other bid an order was made to confirm the sale to Mr A Waddington by the Vice Chancellor – a further order was made to convey the property to the individual mortgagees as Lucy Bird, Elizabeth Bird, Walter Marriott, Dorothy C Bird and Mathew Towgood.

There are two deeds bearing even date. Viz: 26th Jan.y 1835 conveying the property to Dorothy Charlotte Bird and in one of them the following clause recites:-

“That in consideration of the sum of one thousand four hundred and forty six pounds to the said Thomas Davies and Lucy his wife, Elizabeth Bird, Walter Marriott and Mathew Towgood, in hand, well and truly paid by the said Dorothy Charlotte Bird at or immediately before the sealing and delivery &c”. The receipt of which said sum, they, the said Thomas Davies and Lucy his wife,

Elizabeth Bird, Walter Marriott and Mathew Towgood do hereby severally and respectively acknowledge of and from the same and every part thereof, doth release, exonerate and forever discharge the said Dorothy Charlotte Bird her heirs &c.

The usual receipt is applauded to this deed and the signatures of the Rev’d Walter Marriott was affixed to the deeds and receipt at Trowbridge, in presence of Frances Fulford & Wm Nightingale.

The document I enclose, marked no. 7 is Jones & Waddington’s bill of costs for the conveyance as above and mortgage to Miss Jenkins in further proof of these transactions.

In order to pay expenses of transfer, liquidate debts and complete the payment to the mortgagees as above, upwards of £300 worth of timber was cut down and sold by my aunt Dorothy Charlotte and £14 was borrowed on mortgage from Miss Jenkins and £100 from Mr Jones. Next several amounts and Miss D C Bird’s own interest in the property enabling her to effect the purchase early in the year 1835 son after my departure for Ceylon.

My aunt subsequently wrote to me in Ceylon to declare her inability to pay Mr Jones’s debt which was demanded and the interest on the mortgage and maintain herself and her mother and brothers on the farm and that it must be sold unless I could make an arrangement to pay the interest on the mortgage, which was then in arrears and the £100 owed to Mr Jones: and was disposed to do so with the view of securing the property to myself, no mention being their made of any further claim upon it beyond those above mentioned.

Upon receipt of this communication I made arrangement after some difficulty through y agents in London, Messrs Price and Bousted, to pay the interest on the mortgage and Mr Jones’s claim and the payments were thereafter regularly made to Mr Waddington my aunts solicitor on the understanding that it was to be a charge upon the property and in the year 1850 when I had returned to England my aunt D C Bird executed a deed, conveying to me the equity of redemption of the mortgage in consideration of the sum of £751-5-9 so advanced by me and which was then forwarded by my agents.

My payments subsequently amounted to £1089-12-8 in payment of interest up to the year 1857.

A further sum of £300 was remitted at various periods for the service of the farm and a debt incurred of £150 afterwards paid by me, making a total advance of £3041-1-8 including the mortgage. The actual payments in money up to Feb 2nd 1857, when I took over the farm, having been £1539-12-8 and mortgage and interest due that date £1501-9-0 making a total of £3041-1-8.

Mr Davies is a professional land agent and valuer residing at Usk then valued the property on my behalf at £2400 and Mr Mathews a railway engineer having been asked by my aunt and uncle to value it made his estimate between £2500 and £2600. A transfer or conveyance was then executed in my favour for the higher sum of £2600 accordingly by my aunt Dorothy Charlotte Bird and forms my title to the property free from any liability.

Having thus disposed, as I believe, in a satisfactory manner of the legal part of the question that has arisen between my aunt and myself, I am bound to add a few observations on the facts connected with it.

In the first instance I cannot but feel that the forced sale of the property by an order in Chancery was a very harsh recourse to have been adopted by the mortgagees; though the remembrance of it and the feelings it engineered have been lost in oblivion and would not be referred to now but for the purpose of explanation. That measure was rendered the more severe from the fact that my father had purchased the property from his mother and sisters and brothers at a full value and had paid a

considerable portion of the purchased money. One chief object in the purchase having been to secure to his mother the family residence for the remainder of her life at the request and solicitation of his mother and sisters. Secondly, the rejection of the mortgagees of the proposed agreement for the purchase of the property at a fair value was certainly a rejection with it of all the former considerations connected with the sale to my father.

A second proposal that the mortgagees should retain possession as an equivalent to the interest on the mortgage until I came of age and could join in a conveyance without reference to Chancery was also rejected. The mortgages acting with reference to their own interests under professional advice.

My aunt Fanny though probably not consistent of their proceedings and leaving them in the hands of others was nevertheless a party to the suit in Chancery. The rejection of a conciliatory settlement as well as the purchase of the property by the mortgagee at public sale and re-conveyance to my aunt Dorothy Charlotte.

You will thus see that as far as my father’s estate was concerned, my aunt Fanny as one of the mortgagees received the full amount of her share by the sale of my father’s property and by any arrangement subsequently made with my aunt Dorothy charlotte she could not by any possible process fall back on my father’s estate or that of my grandfather.

My aunt will no doubt find it difficult invest her mind of the idea after so long a prepossession that she has not received her share of my father’s property. The same may be said of my aunt Dorothy Charlotte who has also no longer an interest in the estate of her father or any remains of it but the satisfactory reflection that so long as she had the property she sheltered her mother & her brothers in it, though in so doing she sacrificed her own living.

I think you will not fail in arriving at the conclusion, after perusing the foregoing statement, that my aunt Fanny has no claim on me or my father’s estate, had there been any – and that in contributing to aid my aunt D Charlotte to purchase the property she contributed a legitimate quote to a mothers comfort in her old age.

You will also see that in addition to paying the full value of the property I have advanced upwards of £400 beyond it. And finally I feel sure that could my aunt Fanny see the matter in its fair and proper light she would be the last person in the world to advance the claim.

Should you desire to have any further documentary evidence I shall be most happy to furnish you with it.

I remain, my dear Sir,

Yours faithfully

(Signed) Henry C Byrde

To: Harry Nisbet Esqre

T210 – Will of Henry Bird 1823

T 210

8th February 1823 – Will of Henry Bird
Elizabeth Bird, parish of Goytre relict of Henry Bird.
George Bird.
Lucy Bird, spinster.
Frances Bird, spinster.
Rev Wm Richard Lewis Walker Llanover and Georgina his wife, late Georgina Bird
Dorothy Bird, spinster.
Betsy Hayward Winstone of Bath, widow and relict of Wm Hayward Winstone.
To Charles £200 to put him in full pay in an old Regiment and fit him out service at such time.
Wife Elizabeth and other mentioned people, all stocks and shares and Goytre House – not to sell canal shares until they reach £100 per share.
House not to be sold.

CD/CP/70 – Various Property Interests

CD/CP/70

41 – 15th October 1713
Marriage settlement – Melyn-y-coed

  1. Hugh Harries anor
  2. John Lenthall anor

2 messuages 15 perches land 80a parish of Goytre. 1 messuage of 14 closes of land. 80 acres pg. 1 other close of land, messuage, mill 9 closes land

42 – 20th November 1746
Deed to levy a fine

  1. Bridget Bossville
  2. John Griffith

To messuage, tenement, farm, Goytre

43 – 20th November 1746

As above, 1 messuage, 1 farm etc PG

44 – 1st January 1777

  1. John Lewis
  2. David Morgan anor

Messuage, tenement land in parish of Goytre and same in the parish of Abergavenny

45 – 2nd January 1787

1 and 2 as above
£100

50 – 16th July 1792

Lease for a year

  1. Thomas Hobbes anor
  2. Henry Bird

Messuage, parcel of land containing 30a PG

51 – 17th July 1792

Release – As above

52 – 11th February 1797

Mortgage

  1. Henry Bird + Elizabeth his wife
  2. Margaret Phillip

£500 messuage and several parcels of land 30a PG messuage etc. 60a PG

53 – 25th March 1805

Lease for 3 lives

  1. Earl of Abergavenny
  2. Gwilim Jenkins

Close of land ¼ a PG

54 – 29th September 1807

Lease for 3 lives

  1. Earl of Abergavenny
  2. Richard Proger

Messuage garden 3a land PG

55 – 25th May 1815

Ass of a mortgage

  1. John Pyatt
  2. Edward Lewis

£500 messuage and 30a land PG also newly erected messuage 60a PG

56 – 29th September 1813

Lease for 3 lives

  1. Earl of Abergavenny
  2. Thomas Williams

£84 messuage etc 5 closes land 6a 2p PG

57 – 23rd February 1821

Assignment of mortgage

  1. Edward Lewis
  2. Thomas Jones

£518 messuage several parcels of land 30a PG. Messuage etc 60a PG

58 – 25th March 1821

Lease 3 lives

  1. Earl of Abergavenny
  2. William Williams

Messuage garden 3p land 3a p PG

59 – 2nd July 1821

Lease for 1 year

  1. Betsy Hayward Winstone anor
  2. Thomas Cooke

Ruin of a messuage several parcels of land 60a PG several parcels land 30a PG

60 – 3rd July 1821

Release

  1. B H Winstone
  2. Henry Bird

As before

61 – 4th July 1821

Transfer of mortgage

  1. Henry Bird
  2. Alex Waddington

£2150 as before

62 – 10th July 1830

Feoffment

  1. Thomas David anor
  2. Thomas Lewis and Joseph Jeremiah

£9 piece of land 262ft x 68 x 61ft part of Pentre Bach farm PG

63 – 7th February 1832

  1. Joseph Jeremiah
  2. Golden Lion Friendly Society

£60 as before

64 – 29th September 1832

Lease for 3 lives

  1. Earl of Abergavenny
  2. William Williams
  3. Ruined cottage and garden 30p parcel of land 2a 2r 10p PG

65 – 7th December 1832

Lease for a year

  1. William Morgan
  2. Ann Phillips

Messuage farm etc Pantysgawn 50a + messuage etc called Penystare 40 covers messuage etc PG + Lanvair Kilgeddin

66 – 8th December 1832

  1. Mary Morgan anor
  2. Ann Phillips

£3000 Pantysgawn + Penystare 120a PG and Lanvair

67 – 24th August 1834

Lease for a year

  1. Alexander Waddington
  2. Alexander Jones

Messuage several closes of land 60a PG also messuage several parcels land 30a PG

68 – 25th August 1834

Release

  1. As above
  2. As above

£1947.19.2 as above

69 – 2nd December 1834

Certificate of commission for the deeds of married woman

  1. Frances Maria Mais

To a deed 25th August 1834

70 – 26th January 1835

Appointment of assignment

  1. Rev. Thomas Davies anor
  2. HC Bird anor
  3. £1446 as 67

71 – 28th Jan 1835

Mortgage

  1. Alexander Jones anor
  2. Sarah Jenkins

£1400 messuage several closes land and estate 60a but actually 38a 1r 27p PG also messuage several parcels land by estimate 30a but actually 22a 38p PG

72 – 25th May 1835

Further charge

  1. William Morgan
  2. Ann Phillips

£1500 messuage etc Pantysgawn

73 – 20th September 1836

  1. Ann Phillips
  2. CC Williams anor

Messuage farm etc Pantysgawn 50a messuage etc called Penystare 40 covers etc 120a PG and Lanvair

£4500

74 – 29th September 1838

  1. Earl of Abergavenny
  2. William Phillips

Messuage with garden several closes land 3a 2r 10p PG

75 – 18th January 1842

Mortgage

  1. William Williams
  2. Alexander Waddington

Cottage and garden 30p parcel of land 2a 2r 10p

£25

76 – 14th June 1842

Conveyance

  1. Joseph Jeremiah
  2. Thomas Evans

£150 parcel of land 262 x 68 x 61 ft part of a farm called Pentre Bach PG with a messuage built thereon

77 – 3rd January 1845

Further charge and mortgage

  1. William Williams
  2. Charles Williams anor

£500 messuage farm etc called Pantysgawn messuage etc called Penystare also Penycauseway parish of Abergavenny

78 – 9th September 1847

Transfer of mortgage

  1. CC Williams anor
  2. William Williams

£2000 messuages – Pantysgawn – Penystare- Penycauseway

79 – 30th October 1848

Mortgage

  1. William Williams
  2. Lewis Edmunds

£38 cottage and garden 30p parcel land 2a 2r 10p PG

80 – 9th November 1853

Conveyance

  1. Jane Williams
  2. Lewis Edmund
  3. £25 messuage etc 5 closes land 6a PG

81 – 7th March 1850

Mortgage

  1. Dorothy Charlotte Bird
  2. Henry Charles Bird

£700 messuage several closes land 38a 1r 27p PG also messuage several parcels land 22a 38p PG

82 – 5th Feb 1856

Mortgage

  1. Thomas Evans
  2. Sarah Thomas

£120 parcel land 262 etc farm called Pentre Bach together with messuage

83 – 24th April 1856

Transfer of mortgage

  1. Dorothy Charlotte Bird
  2. Capt. Henry Charles Bird

£1400 messuage close of land 3a 1r 27p PG also messuage several parcels land 22a 38p PG

84 – 9th March 1858

Conveyance

  1. Dorothy C Bird
  2. Henry Charles Bird

£1501 9s as above

85 – 30th March 1858

Mortgage

  1. Henry Charles Bird
  2. Rev Thomas Davis anor

£1300 as above

86 – 24th March 1829

Transfer of mortgage

  1. William Williams anor
  2. Edward Yalden Cooper anor

£2000 messuage etc Pantysgawn-Penystare etc

87 – 24th May 1859

Lease

  1. Earl of Abergavenny
  2. William Morgan

Close of land 2a 3r 35p also 3 closes land 8a 2r 27p also parcel land called Ty Bach y Burcwm

88 – 25th October 1859

Conveyance

  1. Richard Proger
  2. H C Bird

£80 dwelling house garden and 5a

89 – 25th March 1860

Lease for 3 lives

  1. Earl of Abergavenny
  2. Thomas Lewis

Cottage 4 closes land 4a 32p

90 – 18th December 1860

Mortgage

  1. H C Bird
  2. Richard Colston Mais

£1466 13s 4d same details as before

91 – 25th March 1861

Lease

  1. Earl of Abergavenny
  2. Col. HC Bird
  3. Cottage and 4 closes of land 3a 10p called Tee Tumpin

92 – 6th May 1861

Conveyance

  1. Thomas Evans
  2. HC Bird anor

£920 262 ft etc as before

93 – 6th May 1861

Mortgage

  1. HC Bird
  2. Wm Gwatkin secretary of the Cumrodorian Society

£300 parcel land etc 262 Pentre Bach

94 – 21st September 1861

Lease

  1. Earl of Abergavenny
  2. H C Bird

Ruins of a cottage 11 closes land 12a 3r 25p

95 – 31st July 1865

Mortgage

  1. HC Mais
  2. RC Mais

Messuage and several closes land 120a 23p (113a 2r 21p) PG and LK

£1547 12s 9d

96 – 5th July 1869

Deed of exchange

  1. RC Mais anor
  2. Trustees of the will of CH Leigh

3 closes of land 9a 2r 19p

5 closes land 11a 28p

97 – 12th August 1869

Grant

  1. HC Bird anor
  2. FL Byrde anor

Parcel land ¼ a at Penpellenny

100 – Goytre House Goytre

3 November 1949

Agreement for a pipe for conveying water from the Mon Brecon canal to Goytre House British Transport Committee + Mon CC

£1 10s pa

102 – Goytre House

8th December 1951

Agreement on Goytre House sewage system

SA Morgan and Mon CC

103 – Goytre House 1952

Abstract of title of SA Morgan to freehold property known as Goytre House

104 – 1st May 1952

Deed of grant

£50 full rights and liberty to lay drain on a plan for the passage of sewage from Goytre House

SA Morgan to Mon CC

111 – 7th August 1954

Land tax redemption certificate

£1 6s 1d

Concerning the above premises

112 – Goytre House 1st May 1954

For the erection of 5 poles and 5 stays and approx 50 yards of underground earth wire total 16/-

Mon CC and SWEB

117 – Goytre House 2nd September 1960

Agreement (c/part)

To let parcels of land situate in PG and Mamhilad containing 22a adjoining Goytre House from 2nd February 1960

£40 pa

Mon CC to Florence May Hamer

120 – Land adjoining Goytre House 20th May 1969

C/part tenancy agreement
Relating to 21.269a of land os plots nos: 105 part 106-part 963-901-902-960-960a situate adjacent to Goytre House

Plan

Annual tenancy from 2nd February 1969

Rent £55 pa

Mon CC to Robert Alfred Hamer Goytre House Farm

122 – 2nd June 1969

C/part agreement

For the tenancy of 2.168a land adjoining Goytre House and being enclosure number 963a and part of 963 on OS sheet for grazing purposes

Plan

£15 pa payable half yearly

Mon CC and Betty Prowlin

125 – Goytre Home for the Aged

2nd July 1976 – Tenancy agreement of the Lodge Goytre

  1. Gwent CC
  2. Mr E J Jenkins

129 – Goytre House

25th October and 15th November 1979

Correspondence relating to boundary line at Goytre House

130 – Goytre House

18th December 1981 – Copy letters and plan re tenancy to drive

T258 – Goytre House Freehold Land 1863

T258

Goytre House freehold lands situated in the parish of Goytre County of Monmouth the property of Col. Henry Byrde JP for the County of Monmouth

Ast 425 9 1 11

Plantation and pasture 426 1 12

Arable 427 2 1 23

Plantation and pasture 428 4 3 20

Manor house + farm bldgs 429 2 0 3

Arable 430 4 1 26

Pasture 431 2 3 29

Gorse 432 2 3 38

Arable 433 3 2 17

Arable 435 5 2 0

Pasture 530 2 0 12

Meadow 531 7 1 4

Pasture 532 2 0 17

Pasture 424 3 3 20

Arable 422a 3 7

Mamhilad

Arable 612 2 0 7

Wood 613 4 2 14

61 9 8

According to the tithes computation survey selected and surveyed by T Rees in the year 1863

T240 – Will of Owen Augustus Byrde 1939

T240

I devise and bequeath all the residue of my real and personal estate whatsoever and wheresoever to which I shall be entitled at my death unto my Trustees UPON TRUST that my Trustees shall sell, call in and convert into money the same or such part thereof as shall not consist of money with power to postpone such sale calling in and conversion for such period as my Trustees shall judge expedient (with particular reference to the shares held by me in Cerebos Ltd) and out of the money so produced and out of my ready money shall pay my funeral and testamentary expenses and debts and the legacies, bequests by this my will or any codicil hereto and all invest the residue of the said moneys in any authorised trust, investments with power from time to time to vary such investments for others of a like nature and shall stand possessed of the residue of such moneys and the investments for/the time being representing the same (herein called “my Residuary Fund”) upon the following trusts:

  1. UPON TRUST to pay the income thereof to myself wife during her life.
  2. SUBJECT to the aforesaid life interest of my said wife upon trust to divide the same into five equal parts and to hold the same as to both capital and income thereof:-
  3. AS to two fifths parts thereof UPON TRUST for my said son Richard George de Fer Byrde absolutely PROVIDED that should my said son predecease me without leaving issue him surviving then I DIRECT that his share shall be held by my Trustees upon the trusts hereinafter set out with regard to the remainder of my Residuary Trust Fund.
  4. AS to the remaining three fifth parts thereof UPON TRUST for my three remaining children, namely Pamela Morrison Murray and Rachel Olivia Byrde and Christopher Granville Byrde on his attaining the age of twenty one year’s absolutely in equal shares.
  5. PROVIDED NEVERTHELESS that in case any child of mine has died or shall die in my lifetime leaving issue living at my death who being male attain the age of twenty one years or being female attain that age or previously marry such issue shall stand in the place of such deceased child and take per stirpes and equally between them if more than one the share of my residuary trust fund which such deceased child would have taken if he or she had survived me and had attained a vested interest.
  6. ANY trustee being a solicitor or other person engaged in any profession or business may be so employed or act and shall be entitled to charge and be paid all professional or other charges or any business or act done by him or by his firm in connection with the trusts hereof including acts which a Trustee could have done personally.
  7. I DESIRE that my body shall be cremated and my ashes deposited in the family grave of my father and mother in Goytrey Churchyard.

IN WITNESS whereof I have hereunto set my hand to this my WILL contained in this and the preceding sheet of paper this Twentieth day of November One Thousand Nine Hundred and Thirty Nine.

SIGNED by the said Owen Augustus Richard Byrde the testator as

And for his last will in the presence of us both present at the same Owen Richard

Time who at his request in his presence and in the presence of Augustus Byrde

each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.

C Evans SRC Thomas

The Old Bank House Patson

Abergavenny Park Avenue

Mon – Bank Manager Abergavenny – Bank Clerk

T222 – List of Goytre Papers

T222

List of Goytre Papers

  1. Conveyance dated 19th September 1853 on lives of Wm Williams, Rice Davies and Richard Cobner viz. Williams and Edwards

Haymeadow

  1. No. 3 HB

Relieve and purchase of Goytrey House in 17th January 1775

  1. No 11 HB

Indenture between James Howell and his wife and Monias Lewis same land as 2. dated 1759

  1. Probate of estate of Richard Colston
  2. Declaration of trust. Baugh and Levnau inform of certain properties in Bristol: Chas Mais
  3. Draft of agreement between Elizabeth Bird and other members of the family and the trustees of Henry Bird’s will
  4. Stamp duties of Colston’s estate
  5. Lease from Earl Abergavenny to Wm Morgan dated 1782 of Craig yr Allt and Bwrgwm
  6. Will of Thomas Hodges mariner concerning property in the Barton Bristol
  7. Consignment of 30? Property in leases Mead Bristol by John Morgan
  8. Deed of release and confirmation of an inventory of lands in Goytrey. James Howell of Ross and others now of Henry Bird 1791. Deed of release and confirmation from James Howell and others to Henry Bird same as nos 2 and 3
  9. Probate of the will of Henry Bird 1799
  10. Release from Thomas Lewis and Robert Hughes to Henry Bird in consideration of £180 rec’d 1788 also refers to same as nos 2-3 &11
  11. Lease for a year by James and John Howell to Henry Bird of the Goytrey lands referred to as above 1791
  12. Declaration or warrant given in the first year of the reign of Geo III concerning lands sold or leased by John and James Howell to Henry Bird, probably same land referred to in other deeds
  13. Settlement by Charles Mais to trustees to receive payment of £3000 to his children – 30th March 1793
  14. Transfer of mortgage by Henry C Bird to W. Macintosh to receive £3000 @ 5% 1866 on Owens property
  15. Declaration of ? on Bristol property to Charles Mais same as 5
  16. Lease re Robert William to John Davy of house in Bristol Horsefair
  17. Conveyance and arrangement by Charles Mais dealer in hats of Bristol dated 1873 to his son Jeremiah of 2/3 of a certain property in Bristol in 1813
  18. Commission by George 3rd to Henry Bird to be Captain of 80th Regt. (Commission by Col. Wilmot) dated 3rd October 1761
  19. Settlement by Richard Colston of Rebecca Mander whom he was about to marry 1777 and settlement of Rebecca Colston
  20. Mrs Hughes release on land of her son Robert dated 1788 as to land in Goytrey bought by Col. Henry Bird see nos 2 & 3
  21. Account of estate by late Samuel Bird by his widow
  22. Conveyance by Lewis Edmunds or Edward to Col. Henry Bird and leasehold property 6a 2r 0p in Goytrey Wm Williams, Rice Davies, Cobner same as no.1
  23. Consignment of mortgage 8th December 1766 Menar Lewis to David Jones concerning land at Goytrey no. 2 & 3
  24. Marriage settlement of Richard Colston and Rebecca Maunder see no. 22
  25. Consignment of mortgage of land in Goytrey by M Lewis named as no. 26
  26. Consignment of mortgage by Philip Jones and R J Mais 1758 to same land
  27. Will of Mrs Mary Williams naming her son 1836
  28. Relating to H C Byrde from Vicar and Churchwardens of Nerettru Church in respect of £200 legacy left by Rev Davies
  29. From the oath of a Burgess of Bristol taken by Richard Colston and other Colston papers
  30. In the matter of proving the copy of the will of Henry Bird 16th Regt., dated 7th November ’31. Signed will 1829. Valuable letter from Henry Charles Bird to Henry Nesbat also declared of debt due by George Bird £3000 arrangement of half shares of all George Bird’s property also letter of George Bird
  31. Mortgage to Waddington of Goytrey lands by Henry Bird and Mr and R C Mais afterwards
  32. P/Att to R A Byrde per Col. H C Byrde
  33. Harilla and Queens of Hills Munny Ceylon
  34. In the United Service stores in liquidation
  35. P/Att Henry C Bird to HB and GMB
  36. Articles of agreement between Henry C Bird and C Augusta Cobbe 1841
  37. Leases bills and transfer of property
  38. Letter Henry C Bird to Miss Wardle about Sunday – mis-statement
  39. Agreement with David Reid about Marionatte land and Eudamarka see 45
  40. Particulars of leases. Estate for sale in estate Elias Bird and also of Samuel Bird’s furniture
  41. Will of W Bosville
  42. Case of David Reid Gampole land see 42
  43. Goytrey House building contract & c
  44. Will of LGM Byrde
  45. Letters from Henry Bird in Holland and Spain to his wife 1801-1813
  46. Do do Mrs Westlake
  47. Wills and papers C Pitts
  48. Papers relating to De Fers, Arnolds and Birts
  49. Account of Goytrey estate from 1895-1911
  50. Letters concerning F C Mais
  51. Henry C Bird commission
  52. Administrations of estate of Amelia Mais deceased
  53. Administration of Miss Louisa Sophia Byrde
  54. Will, Henry Bird married 1799 see no. 12 Account of Henry Bird 1780 also extract will Elias Bird
  55. Administration of goods of Mrs Elizabeth Bird 1843
  56. Conveyance, leases etc of Mais family

T198 – Goytre House Indenture 1775

 T198

16th January 1775

Indenture between farmer Jackson parish of Panteague, husbandsman

Thomas Lewis parish Goytrey Tuckor first part and Thomas Hughes Coedmorgan parish of Llanarth

Sell lease to Robert Hughes a messuage late in possession of James Howell:

Houses, out-houses, barns, buildings, stables with appurtenances, gardens, orchards, folds, backsides. Curtillage, outlets, paths, passages, easements, profits, privileges, commons, hereditaments and appurtenances to the said messuage or tenements thereto belonging with all those several pieces or parcels of land:

 Cae Mamhilad;  Cae Pellenny;  Cae clover Isha; Cae clover Ycha;  Gwenlody skibor; Cae Knap; Wain moorhen;  Cae back;  Cae dishlawr berllan;  Cae fynnon;  Cae souel gwenith; Y cover bach; and 15a woodland

About three one acres

Lease to Robert Hughes

Signed and sealed by farmer Jackson & Thomas Lewis

Col Henry Byrde and the Rev Thomas Evans

The following is printed in booklet form by Col Henry Byrde to be distributed amongst his friends. It began when Col. Byrde chose a friend to be his Chaplain when he was made High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1864 instead of the Rev. Thomas Evans. It was the cause of bad feeling between them which was never resolved.

Correspondence between The Rev Thomas Evans
Rector of Goytrey

AND

Lieut. Col. Henry Byrde
Late High Sherriff of Monmouthshire

1865

For Private Circulation Only

“I’ll hallod!!
if he be friendly he comes well; if not,
defence is a good cause and Heaven be for us.”

Introductory Remarks

Introductory Remarks

My Friends,

In requesting your perusal of a copy of a correspondence between the Rector of Goytrey and myself, I will ask your indulgence in making a few preliminary remarks in reference to the motives which have at length led me to submit it to you, and at the close I will add a brief explanation of one or two matters which have become mixed up with it.

It is generally known that the Rev. Mr Evans took offence at not being appointed my chaplain as High Sheriff of the County; – his letters to me on that subject are expressed in a very strong and offensive language, which he refused to retract, although assured that no slight was intended towards him in selecting another clergyman for the office; and he retains the same angry feeling that he shewed in the first instance, and neither time nor circumstances seem to have had any influence in lessening it.

So far, however, this disagreement between Mr. Evans and myself did not seem to call for that publicity which subsequently circumstances have forced upon me.

I refer to the fact, that members of my family and household have, by Mr Evans, during my absence, been excluded from the Sunday and weekly Schools in the Parish;- Schools composed in a great measure of the children of my Tenants and workmen, in which, with the full concurrence of Mr. Evans, all my family have taken an active and special interest, and I myself, been particularly identified; and I feel as if I continued separation from them was impossible, for the teaching in the Sunday school has been the joy and rejoicing of our hearts since we have resided at Goytrey, and we have had reason to think that our interest both in the weekly and Sunday schools has been valued by the Parents of the children, as well as a source of pleasure to the children themselves; while there never has been the slightest opposition to any desire expressed by Mr. or Mrs. Evans, but on the contrary a careful compliance with every wish made known by either of them.

So public an act as our ejection from the schools, under these circumstances, following Mr. Evans’s insulting letters to me, caused a feeling of just indignation on the part of members of my family, and a desire that I should explain to my friends the reason of this severance from the children of our parish, lest by remaining wholly silent, a misconception of the cause should obtain belief; and it can only be done by circulating among those esteem we value a copy of the correspondence referred to.

I should not, in the first instance, have made this correspondence known beyond the limits of my own family, out of deference to Mr. Evans position as clergyman of the Parish, had he not told some of the parishioners that I had quarrelled with him, and by this means attempted to throw responsibility on me which wholly appertained to himself, and, without an explanation, it might have been thought that this was the case, whereas the supposed grievance was entirely an imagination of his own, followed by a refusal to accept the assurance that no offence could have been intended.

With this notice of my motives in at length placing this correspondence before you, I need only ask your patient reading, to enlist your sympathy with the members of my family and myself in being so undeservedly subjected to such treatment.

The following is the correspondence referred to:-

No1. From Rev. T Evans to Lieut. Col. Byrde

Nanty Derri, 8th February, 1864

Dear Sir,

I will thank you to let me know what I am in your debt for the bricks, &c., which you were good enough to spare me; and also to let your Mason with Wm. Jones (Mason Burgwm) value the paving stones I had from you. I trust you will soon attend to this my request as under existing circumstances, which have necessarily destroyed all friendly and neighbourly intercourse between us, I am naturally anxious to discharge at once every obligation to you however trifling.

I remain, yours truly

(Signed)    Thomas Evans

——————–

Answer No. 1 (From memory)

My Dear Mr. Evans,

I am quite at a loss to understand your note, and therefore address you as usual. Not being aware of any “existing circumstances” to destroy the friendly and neighbourly intercourse between us, I must beg for an explanation. I enclose a cheque for £4 as my school subscription, as I think it better to keep matters of this sort distinct from each other.

I am,

Yours Sincerely,

(Signed) Henry C Byrde

——————-

No. 2

Dear Sir, Nanty Derri February, 9th 1864

I am astonished you should have asked me for an explanation. I am the Clergyman of your Parish. Had I been appointed in 1863 and therefore a comparative stranger to you, had I been on bad terms with your family and yourself, had I rendered no services to you when it was impossible for you to serve yourself to the farms you now possess, I should not have felt so keenly the slight and public insult inflicted upon me by you in unconstitutionally passing by your own minister, and going to an adjoining Parish to select a Clergyman to officiate at the assize. If it be an honor to be selected for such a purpose, by the universal custom of the country, that honor is due to the Clergyman of the Parish wherein the Sheriff resides, unless a Clerical relation should be in the way, having the claims of consanguinity. Not that I craved the compliment, far from it.

I should have deemed the duties in some measure inconvenient. But I do care to find a Parishioner so utterly wanting in the common respect due to his parochial minister as you considered you to be incapable of doing. On Saturday evening your aunt, without a single comment on the subject asked me, who I thought was your chaplain, I said “Walter Marriott of course.” Having received no intimation of your intention, the natural conclusion I drew was that either Mr. Marriott or Mr. John Mais had been fixed on. On hearing that the neighbouring Clergyman was fixed on because he was an old friend, my poor wife, who said nothing, who has said nothing since, turned as pale as death, and felt as I did, that Col. Byrde ought to be the last man to treat her husband with such indignity. I never mentioned the subject to my wife, nor does she know anything about my communication to you. This circumstance is the greatest mortification she ever had and certainly the most humbling and painful one I ever endured, and it is the more keenly felt because it is occasioned by one from whom I had a right to expect at least exemption from a public slight, a slight in the county where I am pretty well known as the Rector of Goytrey, where Goytrey House is situate.

Had you fixed on a relative, my feelings would have been spared and you would have preserved an outward consistency, and shewn that according to the spirit of your Master you “know him who labours among you, and is over you in the Lord” &c. I want no praise, but what by custom is my due. I am aware that some do pass by their Clergyman of their own parishes in this way, this however is the exception and not the rule, and where it is the case, it is traceable to some paltry private pique, or to the reasons referred to. After so unfriendly, un-neighbourly, unchristian and unfeeling act on your part, to use a common term a cut in the most public manner possible, it is utterly impossible that any friendly intercourse can ever again subsist between us.

The insult I will bear as a Christian, and trust in the spirit of my Divine Master, and will not I hope resent it with any bitterness, but will feel it to be a duty I owe to myself as a man and a gentleman, and to my position as the Clergyman of the parish, to mark it with lasting censure and condemnation and to regard it as the strongest proof that could be given that Col. Byrde was my neighbour, my parishioner, my communicant, in a certain sense, but never in my sense a real friend of mine.

Words would not have been plainer, than those used by you at our station as regarded the full and fair share of your liability in securing £30 per annum for Mr. Whitmarsh, cottage included. I have acted as collector and paymaster. The receipt of £4 is therefore on account. Should you write to me again I shall thank you to do so by Post on account of my wife, who must not be excited.
Yours truly,
Thomas Evans

Answer No.2. – Goytrey House, February 10th 1864
Revd. Sir,
I was perfectly amazed at the subject and tenor of the note I received from you yesterday. You have not asked me for any explanation of a supposed “slight” and “insult”, but on the contrary the decisive terms in which you have announced the termination for ever of any friendly intercourse, naturally precludes any further reference to the subject which has called forth so abrupt a decision on your part. I am nevertheless actuated by a sense of duty to myself to counter the explanation that might have been asked previous to your condemnation, as well as to remove from your mind, if possible, the erroneous assumption that any slight or insult could have possibly been intended by me. In the first place when the Deputy Sheriff was asked, whom it was usual to appoint as chaplain, he replied that it was quite optional, and instanced the late Sheriff who selected an old school fellow, I expressed the strong desire I entertained to pay a tribute of respect to one friend of my youth living here, and he at once said that I could not, under the circumstances, make a more appropriate selection.

Had I known it was customary to select the Clergyman of the parish I would have explained to you the peculiar circumstances under which I was induced to set aside even the claims of consanguinity, in the choice I had made; at the same time you are fully aware of the strong feeling of attachment subsisting between Gardner and myself, and must approve of the motives which actuated me in selecting him, as you well know he was the only one near my own age, who during my sojourn in Goytrey, in my youth, thought it worth while to cultivate my friendship, and with the exception of Mr Grieve’s family I may say with justice, that but for Gardner I should have been without a friend, beyond the range of my own family.

This claim on me therefore was of so sacred a nature that it could not be set aside with propriety, and I should have thought that such a sentiment would have found a responsive echo in your own breast, instead of the unmitigated censure the supposed neglect of yourself has called forth: – That I have not forgotten an older friend than yourself, and friendship formed under peculiar circumstances should have been an earnest to you, that I was not unmindful of such sentiments, and I cannot avoid the conclusion forced upon me that the friendship you professed must have rested on a very shallow foundation, to have been so readily, so summarily, and so irrevocably terminated.

I remain, Revd. Sir,
Yours faithfully,
Signed Henry C Byrde.
P.S. In sending my usual subscription to the School I had no intention to depart from the pledge I gave to share the deficiency of salary guaranteed to Mr Whitmarsh.

No.3 – Nanty derri February 11th 1864
Dear Sir,

I have read your letter of explanation. You could not have been ignorant of the fact that your passing by of your own Clergyman not withstanding the circumstances referred to, and which gave him a special claim on you, was a departure from propriety, and a violation if that feeling of common respect and courtesy which in all civilised society I had a right, as the parish priest to expect from a parishioner. The choice, of course, is, and must be optional. But you are not ignorant of what is due from one Gentleman to another, and what is proper and right, and what you would consider due to yourself if you were in my place.

If you had an ardent longing to bestow the honour on your very old friend (whom I do not blame, whom I respect) the least you could have done was to express to me that longing on your part. I was not before now aware that your friendship for Mr. Gardner was of so very “sacred a nature” that you could not with propriety set him aside, rather his claim!

He has of course laboured for you, travelled about the country for you, spent much of his valuable time in your service, taxed his brains in writing to Mr. Mais, to London lawyers, to Mr. Jones of Clythas agent and others, negotiated with award vendors, in short has acted for a considerable period as your faithful agent most disinterestedly and zealously, and with such success as rejoiced your heart, and secured for you through dint of perseverance the broad acres in Goytrey that now give you as you consider, great local importance: having been thus so generously served by Mr Gardner, it would certainly have been the height of ingratitude in you to have withheld from him the tribute of respect which he so deservedly earned.

Having given you in deeds, and such deeds which in every respect are far more valuable than words, proofs of real not “shallow friend-ship”, you could not, I must admit, think for an instant, of ignoring so “sacred a friend-ship” that has so materially and favourably told on your position and importance in the parish and county, and of returning to him evil for his disinterested good to you.

Men are sometimes actuated by motives that are obvious on the surface, and sometimes by motives and feelings that are deep in the strong under-current. It is observed by a Divine, that he had never seen in the long run a lasting blessing on those who are capable of, and guilty of, slighting and deprecating by word or deed, one, who in the Providence of God is appointed to minister to them in holy things.

Yours faithfully,
(Signed) Thomas Evans

No.3 Nantyderri, January 9th 1865
Sir,
I beg to remind you that your subscription to the school for 1864 is not yet received and that the account referred to in the correspondence of February last is still unsettled. At your wife’s request, I paid for you a subscription of £1. 1. 0 to the Bible Society Auxiliary at Llanover. As you have shown and may yet shew the correspondence, truth and justice to myself demand that I should notice an expression in your last letter which escaped my observation at the time, and which seems to me calculated to convey an insinuation inconsistent with fact.

It is this “I should have thought that such considerations would have found a responsive echo in your own great” &c. When I lived some eight months with my brother and guardian who was the clergyman here, and subsequently in the neighbourhood, I am not aware that I was specially in-debted to any people (out of my own family) for their thinking it worth their while to cultivate an acquaintance, which as the minister’s brother I naturally formed in the parish and neighbourhood, nor am I conscious of having received at any time any particular favours or patronage, except from the late Earl of Abergavenny. When you next exhibit the letters (to this I have no objection) I trust your sense of justice will induce you to show this also.
I am Sir,
Your Obedient Servant,
(Signed) Thomas Evans

To The Rev. T. Evans
Answer No.3 – Steamer Nyanza, January 18th 1864

Sir, – Having received your note just on the eve of leaving home, I was unable to do more than hurriedly send Mrs Byrde’s donation to the Bible Society and my annual subscription to the school, and whatever may be further due on the latter account I shall be prepared to pay on being furnished with a statement of the account.

I did not bring your note with me, but if my memory of its contents is correct, you refer to the following expression which I made use of it in reference to the exercise of the motives which actuated my own conduct viz.”which I should have thought would have found a responsive echo in your own breast.”

The meaning contended to be conveyed being simply that which the words themselves imply: that I had given you credit for appreciating generous motives, as well as candour or accepting the assurance of them, though to my disappointment, I have subsequently found that you were incapable of either.

I can have no possible objection exhibiting or even publishing, should it be necessary, your last note, and this reply with the previous correspondence,

I am Sir,
Your obedient servant,
(Signed) Henry C Byrde

Copy of the Rev. T. Evans note to R.A. Byrde – Nanty Derri February 9th 1865

Sir, – In consequence of the rupture between me and your father and of which there is no prospect of its being healed, co-operation is become impracticable. Therefore it would be folly to put up a Finger Organ in the Gallery of Goytrey Church. I have therefore decided upon not allowing the Finger Organ to be put up and shall only retain the Seraphine which can be played under all circumstance.
I am Sir,
Yours Truly,
(Signed) Thomas Evans,
Rector of Goytrey

Rev T. Evans reply to letter of 18th Jane. 1865

No 4.      Nanty Derri, February 14th 1865

Sir, – Whatever meaning you attach to the words “responsive echo in your own breast” I maintain they are capable of being understood in the sense which I attached to them as being possible to be their meaning.

When equivocal language is used the writer must be prepared to receive a reply according to the various interpretations his words may bear, and my reply to this part of his letter has been more sparing than it might have been.

There may be distinctions here that I cannot unravel, a refinement of emotion which perhaps I am not able to fathom. But I hope with all my dullness that I am incapable of being blinded by plausibility. I hope I shall always be able to distinguish between pretence and reality, and between hypocrisy and sincerity; although I have not been abroad as you have been, still my knowledge of human nature is I trust, sufficient to detect affection, awesomeness and dissimulation.

I am reflected upon deeply in your last letter as to my capacity, and seems to be regarded more as a school boy than as a man or a minister. Be it so, I acknowledge my incapacity to under stand the matter in the extraordinary light in which you seem delirious to put it. It will take a long time to satisfy any man of common sense that there was any generosity of sentiment involved in the act of passing by your own Clergyman and appointing Mr. Gardner, particularly when that Clergyman had proved such a substantial friend in your absence. I acknowledge it was a kind of weakness in me to have written or said a word to you about it. I would have been perhaps more becoming in me and more dignified to have treated it with silent contempt, as clergymen do in general under such circumstances. My weakness however in this behalf will show perhaps that I am not so deficient in candour as you insinuate in your last.

To me indeed it would have been a burden and a nuisance to have been engaged as chaplain of the High Sheriff. Most probably I should have thought it necessary to decline it, had it been offered to me.

My fortune and position, I am thankful to say, are such that I could have nothing whatever to gain by an exhibition of myself on such an occasion, and what led me to notice the matter at all in my letter to you was that I could not brook dissimulation.

The entire absence of candour and generosity of sentiment as it appeared to me, and above all, of common gratitude in the transition was such as I thought at the time demanded of me either some written or verbal notice of it to yourself. When I at your special request from Ceylon devoted my time and attention for years in effecting the purchase of farms for you in Goytrey, many if not most of them still with or on heavy mortgages, indeed to the increase of the coolness which unfortunately but causelessly on my part existed between me and Lord Llanover, I was at a loss what motive could have induced you, under such circumstances to slight or pass over me, unless it was because you thought you might please Lord Llanover by it, or displease him by appointing me.

Whatever your motives were, it matters not to me, and I do not care what they were. But I look at the act itself. Ancient and “sacred friendship” has been put forward very emphatically in this correspondence, and in a very imposing manner. Mr. Gardner was known to you it seems 8 or 10 years perhaps before I was; as you have urged this point so very carefully that he was the friend of your youth &c., it is, I think a great pity that the people of this country do not give you credit for it, as none of them had ever observed or known of this extraordinary friendship. I can’t help it that they don’t , and if I am one of those unbelievers you must not blame me, for we all require in such cases not mere assertion but proofs. Indeed the proofs seem to be quite the other way, for I heard repeatedly members of your own family, when I boarded with them now more than 20 years ago, and with whom you yourself lived in your youth, say that they heard you frequently express a dislike* of Mr. Gardner and your words in those times as they are repeated to me I could quote if necessary at the present moment. So much for the ancient and sacred friendship so gravely put forward as an excuse.

I have given strict orders that no erections for the future of any sort are to be made in the church without my knowledge or concurrence, and I have written to your son to decline having a finger organ put up in the church instead of a Seraphine. Perhaps you think you might appear to great advantage before the public if all this correspondence were published, perhaps you are greatly mistaken herein, and after the receipt of this you will probably feel less disposed to have our correspondence published. For my own part I only intended it as a private communication between ourselves, an explanation of my first letter, at your request. I therefore though not afraid of you, decline becoming a public correspondence of yours, and decline any further correspondence or intercourse with you in any shape or form. I will give orders to Mr. Whitmarsh to supply you with the school account for the future, and am.

Yours truly,
(Signed) Thomas Evans

Note:- Not true that I so expressed myself, or ever entertained such a feeling. – H.C.B.

To the Right Reverend. The Lord Bishop of Llandaff.       Kandy, Ceylon, February, 28th 1865

My dear Lord,
I must beg you to permit an explanation of an inadvertency on the part of my step-father in forwarding to your Lordship a correspondence between the Rector of Goytrey and myself without the letter of explanation which was to have accompanied it, and which I had promised to send him for that purpose, whereas under the supposition that I had addresses your Lordship direct, he forwarded the correspondence without waiting for my communication.

An apology is also due to your Lordship for troubling you with a matter rather of private than of public interest, but so intimately connected with the well-being of the church of which I and my family are members, and of which your Lordship is the Spiritual Head, and with that of the Parish in which I reside, that I feel it due to myself and to them to represent the difficulty in which we are placed by the uncalled for conduct of the Rector of the Parish towards me.

I also feel it due to your Lordship to lay this grievance before you not so much for any remedy which you might be able to apply, but rather to enlist your sympathy with the uncomfortable position in which my family have by this means have been placed.

I have an aged mother residing with me who is unable to attend the ministrations of the Church and an invalid son is similarly circumstanced, and there is a natural delicacy  in asking on our part, or in acceding to a request for spiritual ministrations by neighbouring clergymen, and several members of my family as well as some of my dependants feel debarred from participating in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper at the hands of a clergyman who has evidenced, and continues to manifest, so hostile a feeling.

I am also desirous that your Lordship should be rightly informed on a matter which might otherwise lead to the conclusion that I had by some misconduct or other improper manner alienated the affection and friendship of the Rector of my Parish from myself and my family.

I will not deny that before I resided in Goytrey my representative was indebted to Mr. Evans, for some aid in the purchase of lands in the parish, and I have always expressed and endeavoured to show my sense of obligation for this assistance, and this has withheld me from even noticing several instances of unfriendliness and absence of confidence on the part of Mr. Evans, since I resided in his parish, with which, however, and other matters referring to Mr. Evans I refrain from troubling your Lordship, nor could I now have been induced to address you on so painful a subject but from a sense of duty I owe to the position, I had the honour to occupy as High Sheriff, and in justice to the several members of my family who occupy my residence.

I had hoped that, before I left England last month for a temporary residence in Ceylon, the assurance conveyed in my letter would, at length, have elicited some advance to a reconciliation on his part which would have spared me the pain of such communication as the present, but I regret to say that the same feeling as that expressed in his letter continued to be manifested by Mr. Evans on every available occasion.

I need hardly assure your Lordship that so far from mediating any possible slight towards Mr. Evans in soliciting another Clergyman to be my chaplain, I was so utterly unconscious of wounding his feelings that I could not imagine the cause of his first note to me, nor could any member of my family, and I never even imagined he would have valued the office, especially as he had announced his intentions of being absent in London for some weeks at the period of the assizes.

My reluctance in making this communication at all, has been the cause of the long delay in addressing your Lordship on the subject.

I remain, My Dear Lord,
Yours very faithfully
(Signed) Henry C. Byrde

11. To Lieut. Col. H. C. Byrde.  – Bishop’s Court Llandaff – April 7th 1865

My Dear Sir,

A few days ago I received the letter which you did me the favour of writing to me on March 1st. The packet of correspondence between yourself and the Revd. T. Evans had reached me in the month of January, but as no statement accompanied it, I could only conjecture from whom it came and for what motive it was sent. I do not hesitate to say that I read it with great regret, and that in my opinion Mr. Evans is entirely in the wrong as to the assumption that the fact of your not appointing him your Chaplain implied an intention to insult him. Further than this I form no judgement as to the relations that have subsisted between him and yourself, for I am without any knowledge of circumstances, and should not wish to come to any conclusion upon an expert statement on one side or on the other.

On the receipt of your letter of March 1st, I wrote to Mr. Evans to the above effect saying also that if I were in his place I should not hesitate to ask you to consider my letters as never having been written, and to apologise for the tune I had assumed. I added that I was quite sure he would in no way impair his dignity by so doing, and hinted that he should consider his position as the Christian Pastor of the Parish to which you belonged, I made also some extracts from your letter in which you positively repudiate the intentions of hurting his feelings.

You will, I trust, see that I have done all I could. His reply I am sorry to say, is not what I hoped and desired. He declines to comply with my advice. This conclusion I greatly regret, but however I may lament it, it is obviously a matter beyond my control. If a Clergyman thinks himself affronted, it is not an ecclesiastical offence, and if he thinks himself justified in declining to act upon his Bishop’s advice, the Bishop having no jurisdiction in such a matter, can do no more.

I can only therefore inform you of what has happened so far as I am concerned, and express my sorrow that I cannot send you a more welcome communication.

I remain, Dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
(Signed) A. Llandaff.

This closed the correspondence with Mr. Evans.

The following is an extract from a letter from my sister now residing at Goytrey.
On Saturday evening a note from Mr. Evans was put into my hands the following is a copy.

Nanty derri House June 3rd 1865

Madam,

I regret much to be compelled to intrude upon you the subject matter of this note. I can truly say that I regret the more because in all your endeavours for the success of the Sunday school you have shown commendable zeal, and perseverance. It is however my plain duty to be candid and explicit and convey to you my views and feelings. I have felt that the circumstances to which I need not allude has materially interfered with, I may say rendered it impossible that supervision of my Sunday school which before your brother came to reside in the parish I was in the habit of exercising over it as the Clergyman. Upon a careful and I can add serious consideration of the subject I have come to the conclusion that it is my bounden duty not to allow myself to remain any longer in an awkward position with respect to the Sunday and weekly schools. I am therefore under the self-denying necessity of foregoing for the future the advantage derived by the children thus far from the attendance of yourself and Miss Grieve or any member of your family. I beg to thank you and Miss Grieve for the kind and efficient services you have rendered the school.

The box containing your brother’s books I now send, having replaced it by another containing books of my own selection. I find the club money is £1. 7. 0. or thereabouts. I am prepared to continue the club so that the children shall not lose anything by the change, and the service hitherto so kindly rendered by Miss Grieve in the week will be performed by another person.

Thanking you again for the aid you have given which has not been unappreciated by me and trusting you will receive this communication in the spirit and christian feeling in which it was penned.

I remain Madam,
Yours truly,
(Signed) Thomas Evans.

Concluding Observations – In explanation of the foregoing I will offer a few remarks.

On receipt of Mr. Evans’s first note I was puzzled to imagine what could have happened to “destroy all friendly and neighbourly intercourse,” so little did I or any of my family dream of the cause of such a letter, and had Mr. Evans expressed himself clearly I should have tendered any explanation in my power to sooth his feelings, but under the circumstances, I could only write a friendly note in the usual terms of address. I may remark that I had the previous day spent the time between the afternoon school and the evening service at his house, and there being no difference in my cordiality of manner, he should have been satisfied that I could had no intention of slighting him.

I was therefore beyond measure surprised at Mr. Evans’s letter of 9th February and could hardly believe that I was reading a communication from him, and the members of my family were as much astonished at its tenor as I was, myself.

To accuse me of “unfriendly, unneighbourly, unchristian and unfeeling” conduct without ever asking for an explanation, and to say that it was utterly impossible that any friendly intercourse could ever again subsist between us, and marking the supposed slight of himself with his “lasting censure and condemnation,” was very strong language for a clergyman to use towards a member of his congregation who had always been on friendly terms with him, and such as only the most aggravating circumstances could justify.

I hoped his feeling of irritation would have been soothed when I volunteered the explanation contained in my letter of February 10th, and that he would have recalled the severe “censure and condemnation” he had denounced against me when assured that it was as undeserved on my part as the sentence of condemnation was unmitigated on his.

In order that it may not be thought that Mr. Evans was correct in supposing that it was the custom for the Clergyman of the Parish to be selected by the Sheriff for the office of Chaplain I must explain that an enquiry into the appointments that have been made for several years past has proved that the selections of the greater number of Chaplains by the Sheriff of Monmouthshire have not been the Clergyman of their own Parishes, and in exercising my right of choice in favour of a very old friend no indignity could possibly be cast upon Mr. Evans.

On referring to my letter you will see that I avoided every expression that could cause further irritation although I felt grieved at having even unintentionally given offence, and very sorely hurt at the strong terms used by Mr Evans, but I hoped that my explanation would have been met in a candid spirit, and have had the effect of leading to a right understanding.

You will, no doubt have been surprised at Mr. Evans’s reply. The style of his letter is intended to be sarcastic in pretending to detail the services that Mr. Gardner rendered to me to entitle him to my friendship and favour in the appointment of Chaplain instead of himself. Added to which the insinuation that I did not adhere to the truth when endeavouring to explain my reasons for the course which I had adopted, convinced me, that it was useless to continue a correspondence with him, even if he had not himself prohibited any further intercourse.

I would not attempt to disparage any services rendered to me by Mr. Evans and I always gave him credit for having aided my representative in purchasing property for me and I have given proofs that I was not unmindful of his assistance, but until reminded of it, I had not been aware of the amount of obligation I was under in this behalf.

Mr. Evans ignores obligation to any member of my family although I carefully refrained from such an insinuation.

In submitting the correspondence to the Bishop of the Diocese a hope was entertained that through his influence, some better understanding might have been brought about. His Lordship’s reply communicating the result speaks for itself. A Clergyman who could behave in this manner towards an unoffending parishioner would not be very ready to listen to the remonstrance and advice of even his Bishop.

I have been at a loss to understand what Mr. Evans refers to when he says he has given “Strict orders that no erections of any sort to be made in the church without his knowledge and concurrence.”

He may refer to our “family pew” which was made as early as possible to resemble the old one when the Church was rebuilt, as the arrangement admitted, and which was approved by me, under his and the Church wardens sanction some four or five years ago, and which he has now entirely altered, having removed my improvements and changed the original construction without any apparent object, and without reference to me or my family.

Or Mr. Evans may allude to the Monument, now completed, which I expressed an intention of placing in the Church in memory of my Father. Of this however he has left me in doubt, though his remarks appear to point to this object. Or he may refer to the “organ” for which one of my sons has collected subscriptions, and which was about to be erected in the church, except that he makes separate mention of this in one of his letters.

I have therefore been left in doubt to which he refers. The Pew, Monument, or the Organ.

I trust I have not been altogether regardless of the sacred injunction. “If it be possible, as much as Leith in you, live peaceably with all men,” nor have I, I hope, been wholly unmindful of the admonition to “render to all their dues,” but I have failed to discover how I could have acted otherwise than I did, when I offered, unasked, an explanation of an imagined offence that should, at least, have led, on the part of a Christian Minister, to an amicable reply.

Henry C. Byrde.