Gowerian Farmers

Family letters are abuzz as George comes to the end of his apprenticeship and Sill wants him to read the marriage advertisements.

                                        Overton Gower

May 4^th 1880

Dear Brother

I received your letter duly but cannot comply with your request as I never attempted anything of the sort, and do not know what form you would require it in, please send me a copy of yours and then I shall see, and may try at some future one, such a plan has been proposed in Horton Sunday School, for some of the big scholars to prepare papers on the lessons, but I do not think it ever will be practised. 

Pitton tea meeting will be held on Thursday next & some two or three of us are thinking to go, if all is well.  I expect to spend the Whit Sunday & Monday in Swansea with Jane to rest a bit after working so hard sowing barley etc.  The crops are looking very promising about here & the dry fine weather, with yesterdays rain has done not a little to cheer the drooping hearts of the Gowerian Farmers.  Uncle George has had a misfortune, in losing one of his horses (Boxer) on Saturday night, they have one young one 3 years old, besides old Pedlar he is very feeble & I think Uncle is going to Swansea fair on Saturday to buy another.

Our Lyster & Bright are in foal this year, & Boxer is very quiet in saddle, harness being free from vice.  We are well in advance with out work.

I shall like to know whether you & Uncle have made any arrangements, and from what date you receive wages and the amount.

Father and Mother are gone up to Castle this afternoon, as the school board meets at Oxwich this evening & Father is an Hon: Member,

Hoping you & all are quite well again, with kindest love

                              I remain

                                        Your loving Brother

                                                  Silvanus Bevan

P.S. Don’t forget to look over the marriage advertisements in the Camb after the sixth time of asking

N.G. The letters you send to me that you don’t wish Father to see please address to _ _ Jun without which of coarse I cannot open them.

Sill - off to see the world!

Jane’s period of illness lasted many weeks - once recovered she writes this newsy letter to her brother.  

Overton

Oct 6^th 1879

My dear Brother,

We have been looking out for a letter from you for some time now it is coming to fine weather now we have finished hearvest we finished Saturday. 

I was down to Port Eynon yesterday afternoon. It was ten weeks since I was down before.  I did not stay to meeting the Minister from the Mumbles was there and Father thought I should get a cold coming home we have given up going to the wells it is to cold.  I am going to Sketty to stay with Aunt Harriet for a little while on Wednesday.

Poor Capt. Stevens is very ill.  Sill is thinking of going to see the world a little on Saturday. George Bevan of Horton is talking of going to London William Bevan of Horton & John Austin Bevan have been in London. John has been there for more than twelve months at work and Wm about six in last and do you not think it will be a good Job if they stay there.  Wm Stevens intended going but his Father is so bad that he has given up the thought. 

When is Uncle & Aunt coming here the apples are very scarce the few we have is so small. I suppose they have none at Castle. We have not seen any from there for a long time.  John Silvanus Bevan have been down to Uncle George Gibbs for a week.  He went a way Saturday; he has 9 months more to be at sea before he can try to pass. George Bevan of the Ship has had a narrow escape he was ship wrecked near Liverpool you will see it in the paper.

Capt. & Mrs Jones of Horton is in London the boys will not want for company if they go.

Good night hoping you are all quite well I remain Your Aff. Sister Jane Bevan

Picture postcard view of Sketty Road, Swansea

John Austin Bevan never returned to the Gower to live.  In the summer of 1881 he married Jane, Fry, who at the time of the census taken earlier that year was working as a barmaid at the Latimer Arms in Walmer Street, Marylebone, just a stones-throw from John’s home in Fitzroy Street.  In 1901 John and Jane are still living at 32 Fitzroy Street with their children Herbert 15, Roland 12, Ada 6 and four year old John Edgar.  John has his own building and decorating business and describes himself as self-employed.

Rowland Bevan - Esquire of Oxwich

By the early 17th century the Elizabethan Oxwich Castle, built by the wealthy Mansel family, stood empty.  The southern range was converted into a farmhouse leased to tenants and by the end of that century it was home to the Bevan family.

Rowland Bevan - Esquire of Oxwich made his will on his deathbed on April 19, 1760.   After the usual preamble he begins by apportioning his lease held land to his son Richard.

I give and devise unto my Son Richard Bevan all that Tenement of Lands which I hold by Lease called Oxwich Green and also two Fields of Closes of ground which I likewise hold by Lease situate within the parish of Penrice and called by the name of Brimehill unto my son Richard Bevan during the Term of the said Leases.


Richard's inheritance also included £150 'together with two Beds and their Appurtenances one chest and Table and three Chairs and also two horses four Oxen four cows and twenty sheep.'


Rowland then turns his attention to his daughter Elizabeth the wife of William Button who receives 'that house at Penrice which I hold by Lease To hold the same unto her during her Life in as large and ample Manner as Ann Davis Widow now holds the same.'  She also receives £150.

Rowland makes provision for his grandchildren.  To the boys Edward, Samuel, Thomas, Philip, Richard and Rowland Hancorne, Francis, Samuel and Rowland Bevan, he leaves £50 each to be paid when they reach the age of twenty one, adding 'I likewise order the Interest of the said Several Legacies of ffifty pound to be paid by my Executor from the time of my decease at the Rate of four pound per cent per annum towards the Education of my said Grandsons.' Another grandson, also called Rowland Bevan and the son of Francis Bevan, does rather better and receives £500.


The Hancorne sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, receive slightly less - £40 - as does Jane Bevan, but with the same conditions and that the interest also goes towards their education.

Rowland appoints Lewis Tucker and his brother Thomas Bevan to be Overseers of his last Will and Testament.  His last bequest is to his servant Ann Guy who receives the sum of thirty pounds and the use of a cottage and garden in Oxwich then occupied by Philip Harry.

Having signed his will in the presence of witnesses, Rowland obviously has second thoughts about the money left to his Hancorne grandchildren and adds a codicil - 'my Will is that the said Several legacies shall be paid them respectively when they shall be put to any Business or occupation.'


The Will was proved at London just over a month later with administration for all the Goods Chattels and Credits going to Rowland's sole executor, his son Francis.

Oxwich Castle

Built during the early 16^th century, Oxwich Castle is believed to stand on the site of a vanished Norman castle, alongside an ancient trackway dating back to the Celtic Christian period.  

Owned by the wealthy Mansel family, Sir Rice Mansel (1487-1559) was the first renovating architect who built the southern range.  However, it was his son Sir Edward who was responsible for adding the much grander eastern range and that Elizabethan ‘must-have’ gallery and hall.  

Despite all this ambitious building work, the Mansel family’s occupancy proved relatively short lived and by the early 17^th century the castle was empty, the southern block converted into a farmhouse and leased to tenants.  

The Bevan family occupation dates from 1698-1917 and spans over two hundred years and a part of four individual centuries.  By the beginning of the 18^th century Rowland Bevan and his wife Joan were farming at the Castle. Their son Francis baptised at St. Illytd’s on 15^th April 1730 took over the tenancy after his father’s death in 1760.  Francis was Silvanus’ great grandfather and Ann’s great-great grandfather.   In his turn, Ann’s father George took over the tenancy and Ann and her sisters and brother grew up at ‘Castle.’ 

The black and white photographs of Oxwich Castle date from the beginning of the 20th century.