Rhondda Davieses - The Cwmsaerbren Davies Family
If
Richard and Gwenllian left the Rhondda to escape the rapid development
of mining and industry, however, Richard's brother William (#545) and
his wife Catherine (#546) - pictured here - remained to profit from it.
They farmed Cwmsaerbren until the early 1850's, by which time surveys
had shown that a rich seam of high quality steam coal lay under their
land. The Marquis of Bute, already a major landowner in the region,
bought the farm and exploited its mineral deposits, developing the Bute
Colliery there, which was the start of the Rhondda Black Gold Rush. Some of William and Catherine's sons remained in the Rhondda Valleys as farmers: William (#558) farmed Dyffren Sarnwch in the Rhondda Fach for some years before returning to Ton Farm in the Rhondda Fawr; Thomas(#557)
farmed Ynyswen (between Treherbert and Treorchy); John (#555) remained
single and stayed at Cwmsaerbren, farming it with his father until it
was sold. Evan(#536) farmed Bwllfa, above Gelli. Also daughter Jane(#554)
and her husband William Thomas farmed Penrhys Isha. But the rapid
growth of population in the Rhondda valley provided other business
opportunities which may have seemed more attractive than farming and
which other members of the family were not slow to seize, helped, no
doubt, by the proceeds of the sale of Cwmsaerbren. Daughter Mary (#556) became a hotelier, running the Bute Hotel in Treherbert with
her husband John Evans (#661), as did several of William and Catherine's grandsons: William(#560)
established the De Winton Hotel in Tonypandy, and his daughter
Gwenllian and her husband later ran the Mardy Hotel in Pehrhys; Thomas (#580) became proprietor of the Windsor Castle, later the Windsor Hotel, in Ton; and Thomas, John and Evan, sons of Thomas(#557)
held, respectively, the Talbot Arms, Llantrisant, the Turbeville Hotel,
Peterston, and the Boar's head, Llanharry. William and Catherine's
youngest son, David Davies,
siezed a very different opportunity - presumably, once again, helped by
the proceeds of the Cwmsaerbren sale - he studied medicine in London
and returned to the Rhondda to become one of it's most eminent doctors,
and later the Medical Officer of Health and Justice of the Peace, one
of four in the family in nineteenth-century Rhondda. The family also
provided the Rhondda with no less than three Registrars of Births and
Deaths and two Relieving Officers.During
his time at Cwmsaerbren, William DAVIES played a prominent part in
the life of the region and, himself, became a Justice of the Peace. He
is credited with starting one of the earliest day-schools in
Ystradyfodwg, in a hayloft at Cwmsaerbren in 1816 .... the school
flourished between 1816 and 1822 under the direction of the Rev. Edmund
Jones, Baptist Minister of Tonyrefail, and pupils were attracted from
all parts of the Rhondda and also from the neighbouring valleys of Cwm
Ogwr and Glyncorrwg. A later schoolmaster was John Evans, husband of
William's daughter Mary.
Clearly,
the Cwmsaerbren school addressed a critical need in the area; in "The
Old Order" - the first chapter of his book "The Rhondda Valleys", E.D.
Lewis tells us: "There can be little doubt that the educational
standards of the small farmers and labourers of these valleys were
appallingly low in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is
evident from the parish registers of marriages that most parishioners
could not write, for the overwhelming majority signed their marriage
certificates with a 'mark'. The ability to read, too, was confined to
comparatively few. With the exception of the larger farmers ... no
Rhondda farmers had the means to send their children to the nearest
Grammar School at Cowbridge, and the last of the seven Circulating
Welsh Charity Schools established by Gruffydd Jones in the parish of
Ystradyfodwg ceased in 1766 ......... Throughout the first half of the
century, there was no educational provision for the children of the
Upper Rhonddas, save that offered by the Sunday Schools and 'Private
Adventure' Schools [like Cwmsaerbren]"
Clearly,
the Cwmsaerbren school addressed a critical need in the area; in "The
Old Order" - the first chapter of his book "The Rhondda Valleys", E.D.
Lewis tells us: "There can be little doubt that the educational
standards of the small farmers and labourers of these valleys were
appallingly low in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is
evident from the parish registers of marriages that most parishioners
could not write, for the overwhelming majority signed their marriage
certificates with a 'mark'. The ability to read, too, was confined to
comparatively few. With the exception of the larger farmers ... no
Rhondda farmers had the means to send their children to the nearest
Grammar School at Cowbridge, and the last of the seven Circulating
Welsh Charity Schools established by Gruffydd Jones in the parish of
Ystradyfodwg ceased in 1766 ......... Throughout the first half of the
century, there was no educational provision for the children of the
Upper Rhonddas, save that offered by the Sunday Schools and 'Private
Adventure' Schools [like Cwmsaerbren]" William was also responsible for the building in 1823 of almshouses in Pen-yr-englyn on Cwmsaerbren land, and, from 1825, the loft of one of them was used to house a Sunday School. The first preacher there was David Naunton, the Minister at Ynysfach, who preached there every Sunday afternoon. In 1839, it was decided to build a new Baptist Chapel in the Upper Rhondda valley and William agreed to give land, "Waun-Pwll-Brwyn", at Cwmsaerbren on a 999-year lease for five-shillings per year. The lease was made out to David Naunton the preacher on the 1st January 1842. And that was the start of Libanus Baptist Chapel.