As a Solicitor, Griffith Llewellyn appears to have been noted for unscrupulous dealings. One episode in particular is well documented. Expand this note to read the details, provided by Glyn Davies: If credence can be given to the writings of Owen Morgan, at no great credit to himself, Griffith augmented his estate by scurrilous means in the acquisition of Bwlch-y-Clawdd otherwise known as Parc Isaf and Ystrad Wen. A transcription of the alleged affair is as follows: - THE SAD FATE OF WILLIAM -DAVYDD. PARC ISAV. A TRAGEDY: A SQUIRE AND HIS VICTIMS. TWELVE YEARS A PRISONER IN THE FLEET, ETC. In 1752, David Hopkin was the owner of Parc Isav Farm, and the great mountain known as Bwlchy- Clawdd, situate between the farmhouse, and the top of Ogmore Valley. The family had possessed the property from remote antiquity. The little Western Glen in which it is situate, due West from Aberorchwy (Treorky), was anciently called Ystrad Vechan, or Lesser Ystrad, and the Farm-house at the top of it, Parc Isav, or Lower Parc, there being another house of the some name round the angle above on the right. David Hopkin and Janet, his wife, had. the following sons. and daughters: Thomas, Evan and Morgan. Daughters: Gwenllian, Alice and Janet. Thomas had in the lifetime of his parents, a son by one Catherine Thomas. He was named Howell, and was reared with the family at Parc Isav, from which he married Mary Ann John, on May 1st 1762. He became a great favourite with his, grandparents, but as seems from later circumstances, an object of jealousy to Gwenllian after she married and had a son and daughter of her own. In David Hopkin's will, dated 1752, he places Howell. in the position of fourth in succession under the entail male to the landed estate, thus giving him the statue of a fourth son of his own, the others being Thomas, Evan and Morgan. In the same year, David Hopkin died, and was buried near Ystrad-Dyvodwg Parish Church. Evan and Morgan died soon after, both unmarried. The widow, their mother, continued to reside at Parc Isav, in possession by the courtesy of the law. She was alive in 1770, when Thomas married one Margaret Butler, Llandyvodwg. Gwenllian had married William David, and both were tenants of Coed y Meirig Farm, above Merthyr Tydvil. They had two children, William and Janet. Her husband died. Some time after, Gwenllian married one David Richard. Alice was married, and with her husband and family occupied Ynisbeio Farm. Janet lived unmarried with her mother at Parc Isav. Howell occupied Tylecoch, Yniswen and Nant Ddyrus farms; the two last named till his death in 1821. Thomas, on his marriage with Peggy Buttler, rented Canar Mawr Farm above Pencoed. Not having enough ready cash to stock his rented farm, he applied to "Rhys, Court Coleman", a Bridgend solicitor, for a loan. He obtained £200 from him, on the security of his succession to the landed estate on the demise of his mother. But, almost immediately after his marriage, the malady, which had proved fatal to his two brothers, Evan and Morgan, consumption, attacked him, and he was soon known to be slowly dying. " Rhys, Court Coleman " was now naturally enough, anxious about his £200. Of course he could have distrained upon the farm stock of Thomas, but this would have been very sad business in the face of Thomas's mortal illness. Mr. Rhys knew perfectly well that the next in the succession to the freeholds was Howell; and Howell had in no way been asked to join his father in giving security to Mr. Rhys for the £200. There appears to have been a deliberate conspiracy on the part of members of his family, concocted by Gwenllian, to conceal from Howell's knowledge that he was the next survivor after his father, Thomas, to whom the estate descended under the will of 1752. Mr. Rhys appears to have discovered this. The first stroke, with a view to cheat Howell, was Gwenllian and her second husband, under some excuse sending her two children to live with their grandmother and Jane, at Parc Isav. The grandmother died, but Jane continued to live at Parc Isav as tenant under Peggy Buttler, Thomas having died in April, 1774. It does not appear that Janet had the slightest suspicion as to Gwenllian and David Richard's motive in placing her little son and daughter at Parc Isav Mr. Rhys, Court Coleman, had informed them of a plan to transfer the succession from Howell to William, Gwenllian's only son. To be effectual that which had to he done had to be accomplished in Thomas's lifetime, and he was in the last stage of the malady. What Mr. Rhys proposed, .was to take proceedings to bar the entail created by the will of 1752 executed in Howell's favour. The process is called Fine and Recovery. Notice of this to be done had at once to be filed at the next Brecon Assizes, in March, 1774. This notice was practically given by David Richard, and Mr. Rhys acted as his attorney in the case. They appeared in April, 1774, at the Glamorgan Assizes, held in the town of Cowbridge, and there suffered the Fine and Recovery. Instantly afterwards they went at full gallop to Canar Mawr, where the dying man lay; got him and Peggy to ratify the document by their signatures, and then executed Thomas's last WilI and Testament, in which Howell's name is not at all mentioned. The writer has had in his hands at the Record Office, Fetter Lane, London, the document signed by Thomas and Peggy relating to the barring of the entail. Thomas's signature is like a very faint " H." (" His Mark "), indicative of his extreme weakness at the time. Peggy's signature is a bold heavy cross. We find by the Church Register and his Will, that Thomas died that night or on the morrow. There is one saving thing in the nefarious transaction, namely, the conspirators were too hurried by the aspect of Thomas's dying condition, to prepare and execute a Declaration of Uses without which a Fine and Recovery is of no effect to bar an entail: therefore the entail of David Hopkin, in 1752 in favour of Howell is still in force. This was discovered by Mr. Griffyth Llywelin, Baglan Hall, as will be shown further on. Howell continued to enjoy a busy life on his neighbouring farms, never dreaming of the roguish practices around him. No doubt he was one of the mourners at his father's funeral, and wept over his coffin. But there were others whose consciences were uneasy: they knew they were thieves, and had taken undue advantage of the circumstances of the dying Thomas to rob his son, Howell. Thomas had no issue by Peggy. Howell never knew to the last moment of his life, the above story, but old people have told the writer he often said, he would but for his illegitimacy, have been the heir to Parc Isav and Bwlch y Clawdd: but he never knew the conditions of his grandfather's will of 1752, which made him heir, notwithstanding the bar sinister. In 1784 Janet David Hopkin died. In her Will she bequeaths everything, " Chattels moveable and immoveable," to Howell, whom she describes as "the beloved son of my brother Thomas." William, Gwenllian's son, took possession of the freeholds, and married his late aunt's servant girl. Sometime after this, Mr. Rhys, Court Coleman, took action against William, for the recovery, of the £200. William obtained the money under the security of a Promissory Note, of Mr. Walter Edwards, Ty Newydd Farm, Treherbert. In 1806 Mr. Walter Edwards died, and in his Will left £200 to his son, Mr. William Edwards, Bedwhir, Aberdare, a solicitor. In 1807 he called in the money. Whether there was a rumour in the country that there was something defective in William's title has not transpired. It seems highly probable there was and that Mr. Rhys, after he had obtained his £200, let out hints to that effect. Perhaps, too, his conscience troubled him respecting the wrong he had entailed upon Howell, who, with a large family was struggling along. But what is positively known is, that William could not find anyone to advance the £200 to enable him to repay Mr. Edwards. Another significant fact is, that Mr. Edwards did not foreclose the freeholds held by William. lnstead of that he more than once took all William's sheep, cattle, horses, etc., and had them sent to the Pound at Court Leet, near the present Pandy Hotel. But in every instance he had them driven back to Parc Isaf fields. The next thing to happen was, Mr. Edwards requesting William to sell the freeholds to him. Things were in this state in August 1807. The trouble at Parc Isav was the theme in every mouth in the Valleys. But no one came to poor William's assistance. We now come to the circumstances of William's ruin, his long imprisonment in the Fleet Prison; bottom of Fleet Street, London, and his burial there in the year 1820. - Eighteen months later, his cruel persecutor died too, in the midst of his wealth and luxuries near Aberavon. SCENE FIRST: - CARDIFF ARMS PARLOUR, CARDIFF. TWO SOLICITORS MEETING. Their names are, Mr. Gruffyth Llywelin, Baglan Hall, and Mr. William Edwards, Bedwhir. Both look upon William Davydd, Parc Isav, in his trouble as a ready prey for vultures; and the only thing troubling them is which of them two shall have the felicity of swallowing his farms. All his indebtedness is only £200, but that only makes the case more interesting to them. Mr. G, Llywelin to W. Edwards: "You have had a lot of bother with William David". Mr. William Edwards (closing one eye and looking significantly at his brother in the law); "Yes, I have; but I think I have at last got him willing to sell the lot to me". It may be mentioned here that it was the smallness of the sum and great value of the freeholds held by William David, were the obstacles in the way of Mr. William Edwards, and that his annoyance, taking away the sheep, cattle, etc., were to worry and force William David to sell to him. After Mr. G. Llywelin had wormed out of Mr. William Edwards all about the affair he wanted to know, he enquired of Mr. Edwards, was he going up that afternoon to Ystrad-Dyvodwg? "Yes, I am," was the answer Said Mr. G. Llywelin: I am coming too, but I have a little business to transact in the town first. Will you wait, that we may go up together? "Yes, I will," replied Mr. William Edwards. Now the Rev. Evan Prichard was Vicar of Llandaff, and was married to Mr. G. Llywelin's sister. As quickly as possible he rode to Llandaff requested the Vicar to mount a horse and ride with him to Pentre, Ystrad-Dyfodwg. The Vicar's father, Mr. Evan' Prichard, Collena, Tonyrefail had borrowed a considerable sum of money of Mr. G. Llywelin, to enable him to convert Tonyrefail into a place of various industries besides farming. It is plain that Mr. G. Llywelin was a man of much vigour, both mentally and physically, therefore, fond of having his own way. On the other hand, the Prichard's were honour personified, and they were amiable to a fault. Moreover, they were most deeply religious in their convictions and their lives. The two started on horseback from Llandaff. It was August 8th, 1807. SECOND SCENE. Parc Isav Farmhouse standing alone at the foot of one lofty mountain, and having one equally lofty on either flank. The house even then was most venerable in appearance, and no doubt hundreds of summers and winters had visited it in divers moods. Near it flowed from the lonely majestic and silent mountains, the clearest waters that come forth from these filter beds of God. In the angle above the house was a fine orchard of apples, pears and other fruits, which, owing to the shelter theft from blighting winds, grew to perfection. Adjoining the house were outbuildings for the cows, and there in, former days Gwen, Alice, and Janet might, while milking the generous kine, be heard warbling ancient Kimmerian airs wedded to rural ballads. There in the interior directly opposite the entrance was a door, then a long dairy, with two windows opening into the blooming garden. The tables in the dairy were large stone flags, cut into shape by some forefathers of the house, from some mountain quarry not far off. But at the time we are dealing with, all of the former generations had passed away o'er that bourne from which no traveller returns, as far as we know. On this particular day, William David was engaged in doing something near a hedge in a sloping green field just above the house. Jane, his daughter, now repeats what she beheld. She often repeated the story when upwards of 80 to the writer: " I was in the act," she said, "of feeding the geese, just behind the house, when I saw a man coming up the Glen, on horseback. He saw my father and he then dismounted, and opening a gate, he passed through into the field leading his horse by the bridle up towards my father. I felt curious as to who he was and what he wanted. We had gone through so much trouble because my father could not pay Mr. Edwards, that, in my anxiety (gofid) I ran up on the opposite side of the hedge, and I listened to their conversation. I heard my father calling the gentleman Gruffyth Llywelin, and he telling my father that William Edwards was coming to take all he had, that the best thing for him to do was to pretend he bad already sold the lands to him- (Gruffyth Llywelin). I heard my father repeatedly saying to his visitor that he could not believe Mr. William Edwards would behave in that cruel manner." "But," said Mr. Llywelin, "see what has he not done already: belittling you in the eyes of all the parishioners." The end of the quarrel - for so Jane regarded it - was, that my father went down the field towards the road leading down from the Glen, with Mr. G. Llywelin who was walking and leading his horse. I darted back into the house, said Jane, and told mother what I had overheard; and that my father had gone down the road with Gruffyth Llywelin. My mother got excited, and told me he too had been wanting to buy our lands. My mother said: The scamp is taking your father to Pentre Farm. As soon as she dressed herself, away she went after them. In after life she mentioned what took place. I, she said, hurried with great emotion down the great valley to Pentre porch. They inside must have seen me coming, and when I entered, the passage, I met your father (to Jane) coming out of the parlour. Gruffyth Llywelin called out after him, ' I will send a man to crop the hedge below your house.' Mother (Mrs. David) replied, with an oath, 'you will do nothing of the kind, Guito! On the way home my father told mother that what he had done was to protect himself from William Edwards. He had placed his cross to a paper to that effect, and a clergyman had witnessed it. That was all. SCENE THIRD. Six months after this, in the month of February, 1808, William David was at Llangynwyd on business. He was arrested at the instance of Gruffyth Llywelin, under the Writ called Capias ad respondenum, and was lodged in Cardiff Gaol. He refused to plead, or answer at all. The plea against him was that he had contracted a promise to Mr. Gruffyth Llywelin, witnessed by the Rev. Evan Prichard, Vicar of Llandaff, to sell in six months from August 8th, 1807, both Parc Isav and Bwlch y Clwdd, for a thousand pounds. To his friends William David declared he had been tricked into signing the promise, and that he would rather die than ratify what he had been induced by trickery to sign. SCENE FOURTH. Between 1808 and 1812 Mr. Gruffyth Llywelin appears to have discovered that the defendant William David, was not after all, the real owner of Parc Isav and Bwlch y Clawdd, but Howell Thomas David Hopkin. Howell, in 1812, was 80 years old - he lived nine years longer. One day he was by the footbridge over the river opposite Yniswen, just above Treorchy, when Gruffyth Llywelin suddenly accosted him. The conversation, as Howell said afterwards, was "about William, his cousin". The evident object of Gruffyth Llywelin was to get Howell also into his toils. The author discovered in the Record Office what Gruffyth Llywelin was engaged upon at this very time. He was preparing a Bill of Complaint, which the writer has read, against William David. By the bridge he promised Howell £100 "for signing a bit of paper". As already stated, Howell had it fixed in his mind that he could not be the heir of his father, because, unfortunately, he was born out of wedlock. Howell was tempted by the offer of £100 promise dangled before him. He consented, and agreed to accompany Gruffyth Llewelin to Pentre. He wanted to go to. Yniswen, close at hand, to tell his wife and daughters where he was going. No, the tempter was not willing; he, as in the case of William David, was afraid of the keenness of a woman's wit. Howell signed his name; the Rev. Evan Pritchard witnessed that document also. William had already been about four years in Cardiff prison. Immediately after Howell "signed---an act which greatly annoyed William's family, who were in the dark as to the meaning of the act - Gruffyth Llywelin, the miserable man, stated in his Bill of Complaints (1812) that William David, the defendant, had promised to sell the said lands to him for a £1,000, and that "Howell Thomas, otherwise David, had, as security against the entail created by the Will of David Hopkin in 1752, joined in the sale by William David, the said Howell to receive £100 out of the purchase money. Those are his very words in his Bill of Complaint filed in 1812. William David made no answer, being too poor, and uneducated to be able to do so. The Judge committed him to the Fleet, for contempt of Court, refusing, the legal form is, to answer a Bill in a cause. The author has traced in the Books of Record the subsequent life of William David. He never left the Fleet Prison alive. In 1820, he was still lingering there, often dreaming of his wife and children in the lonely Glen in Ystrad Dyvodwg. Now and then, in succeeding terms, Gruffyth Llywelin would have William David brought before the Judge, to "answer", but the result was always the same, namely, recommittal because be refused to "sign" to complete the sale of Parc Isav and Bwlch-y-Clawdd to plaintiff, Gruffyth Llywelin. The plaintiff appears to have diligently watched the varying condition of his victim's health. This to him was important, for his victim might die, and then the "bargain" might become forfeited. Thus, with unrelenting greed and callousness, he watched lest the victim underneath his cruel paw, might disappear "to beyond the veil," to where the weary is at rest. Late in 1820, news came that William David was ailing, and probably dying in the London prison. Would he escape the talons of his educated enemy; a man versed in all the technicalities of the law? Gruffyth Llywelin hurried up to London, and there be appealed, by counsel, to have the "promise" of August 8th, 1807, completed by the hand of the Judge, instead of by that of William David himself. This was what is called "specific performance" by a Judge in Equity, in the name of the law. That was done. The taxing Master reported the cost of the action by Gruffyth Llywelin v. William David was £800, the debt due to William Edwards, Bedwhir, was £200. Those sums Gruffyth Llywelin was ordered to pay, and to retain his own costs in the case. Thus the £1,000 for the two said farms, and the £100 promised to Howell Thomas, otherwise David, were swallowed up. William David was now apparently released by the law. He must have supposed he would now very soon behold again his native mountains, after spending twelve years within prison walls, the sad victim of a soulless and cruel sharper of the blackest dye. No, he would see the faces of his wife and smart daughters never more. His sons were athletes, but what could they do! Their father was in the grip of the law, set in motion by one who knew the technicalities, and who had sworn that the victim was about to leave the country, to avoid carrying out his contract with him, and who thereby had imprisoned under a "Ca Sa," warrant. The plaintiff's oath was a lie, but what cared he for the responsibilities of perjury, which could not be proved in a court of law against him. Did he think of a higher power when he invoked the Majesty of Heaven by the words, "So help me God". Until some years ago, there were in Ystrad Dyvodwg, men living who knew friends who had visited poor William David in Cardiff prison and afterwards in the Fleet, London, some few years before he died there, in loneliness and sorrow. His two daughters, Jane and Ann, were limping little girls when he had last beheld their comely, innocent faces. Visitors had lately informed him they were now the beauties of the old Glen in far off Wales. How he longed to hear their voices and that of their mother, about his dying bed. Alone he passed away, and his body was consigned to a grave within his prison walls. THE LAST SCENE AT PARC ISAV. "We hardly ever received letters at Park Isav," said Jane to the author in her old age. "But one day a letter came to my mother. It was bordered in black, the only one of the sort that had ever come to our house. Something told me," she continued, "that the letter announced poor father's death. It appears the letter came from Gruffyth Llywelin, to prepare us for what he was about to do; turn us out into the road". Jane went on to says as follows: -"none of us could read or write, for there were no schools in the parish then. I took the letter down the little vale to the great valley, and then to Aber'orchwy. I there handed it to Mr. Edwards to read. After reading it silently, he said to me, 'Yes, my girl, your poor father is dead and gone! I had always hoped to see my poor father before he died, but now I knew I should never see his dear face any more. I returned home along the road running by the brook, crying dreadfully all the way. On reaching home and telling mother and the elder children, my mother grew frantic, and wringing her hands and walking about, she cried incessantly, dear William will return no more!' It was a dreadful afternoon at Parc Isav.' " A fortnight later," she went on to state, "Gruffyth Llywelin rode over Bwlch y Clawdd Mountain, he called higher up the glen upon William Hopkin and got him to accompany him to our house. When they entered I was peeling potatoes by the kitchen window, and mother was knitting, by the fire in the parlour. Suddenly William Hopkin caught my arms from behind. I was at the moment tempted by the devil to drive my knife into the heart of the man who had killed my father. William carried me outside and held me there. Presently my mother came out with Gruffyth Llywelin. Then he placed a padlock on the door, and we were requested to 'go away'. We went to some friend's house down the valley. Eighteen months later, Gruffyth Llywelin himself was dead. Old people, said Jane, told me he became insane, and that, in his fits of madness, he was crying out, 'William David, Howell Thomas. "0! God, God, God", and that he died tragically in 1822". Many years ago, the author visited Thomas Roberts, son-in-law of Howell Thomas. He had lived in Merthyr Manor Lodge, under Sir John Nicholl, since about 1818. He was blind and very old, and in bed. He told the writer he was living in one of his father-in-law's rented farms, called Yniswen, above Treorki, at the time his father-in-law was induced to " sign" a paper on being promised £100 by Gruffyth Llywelin. "But," asked the writer, "did you not suspect by Gruffyth Llywelin's action, Howell had some claim to the two farms, notwithstanding his illegitimacy?" " Yes," was the answer," and I went to Llandaff to consult Howell's father's Will. But his name was not even mentioned in it." "Had you," the author said, " consulted Howell's grandfather's Will you would have found that Howell was the real owner, and not William, as far as Wills were concerned." The old man lifted up both hands and said, "Here is at last clear what has puzzled me all my life". It appears that while the excitement of the contest lasted, Gruffyth Llywelin was buoyed up by artificial excitement, but when the grave closed over his victims - for Howell died in 1821 - conscience awoke in the unhappy man, and made his wealth like the fires of Sodom to him. The said Howell Thomas was the author's great-grandfather. (Owen Morgan 1836 - 1921, journalist & writer)