man knight Maquerelle, who probably possessed that fortress, of which there are some remains near the high road from Laugharne to Tenby; and Passenants* lake is found in the charter of Guido de Brian to the burgesses of Laugharne. Such, as the antiquary has so often occasion to observe, is the tenacity of names.

After the death of Henry II. the warlike spirit of Rhys ap Gryffydh again broke forth; according to Giraldus Cambrensis he took the castles of Lanstephan and Talachar (Laugharne) by assault, and laid waste the provinces of Pembroke and Ross by fire and sword, but failed in a similar attempt on Caermarthen.

Lewellyn ap Jorveth, Prince of North Wales, prosecuted a series of military incursions with great vigour into South Wales in the reign of Henry III. It was at this period that Guy de Brian became distinguished as one of those marcher lords who, establishing themselves on the frontiers and sea coast of Wales, and raising fortresses to command the communications of the country, kept the native Cambrian princes in check, acquiring for themselves what territory they might by dint of the sword, and exercising within the limits of the possessions thus won, the rights of lords paramount, with which the Crown did not interfere. Guy de Brian appears to have sided with the barons who rebelled against Henry III. They committed to his charge as a man of influence and authority in South Wales, the castles of Caerdigan, Caermarthen, and Kilgeran; he returned however to his allegiance, and was received into the confidence of the King.

He held, probably by grant from the Crown, the castle and royal demesne of Laugharne by the military service of finding two men at arms with horses all properly equipped, or

eight armed soldiers on foot, to be maintained in the field three days for the king at his proper cost, on receiving due notice from the bailiff of Caermarthen. He espoused Eve, the sole daughter of Henry de Tracy,† by whom he had an only daughter, who married Geoffrey de Caunvile; and by a second wife, whose name is unknown, a son. He died in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Edward I. A. D. 1307, and was succeeded in his possessions by Guy, his heir above-named, who married Gwenthelian, daughter of Gryffydh ap Lloyd.§ This appears to have been the Guy Brian designated as minor or the younger, who granted the charter of privileges and incorporation to the burgesses of Laugharne. This ancient document is still preserved with the muniments of the Corporation, and is perfect, with the exception of the seal. As a curious local record worthy of preservation, we have here translated it. The allusions to ancient customs and feudal services, and the mixture of Saxon with Welsh appellations, which it contains, will be observed.

CHARTER OF GUY DE BRIAN TO THE BURGESSES OF LAUGHArne.

To all the faithful of Christ to whom this present writing shall come, Guy de Brione | the younger sends health eternal in the Lord. Be it known unto all of you that we have granted to our dear and faithful Burgesses of Thalacarn, for us and our heirs, and our successors whomsoever, all the good laws and customs which the burgesses of Kaermardyn have hitherto used and enjoyed in the time of King John, the grandfather of the Lord Edward, the son of Henry, and of their predecessors, kings of England, preserving the weights and measures which were in use in the time of Guy de Brione senior. We grant also to them a free common in all our northern wood, to wit in the whole Forest of Coydebech ¶ and all that common pasture in the Marsh of Thalacarn, which is called Menecors,** according to the marks and boundaries as it has been

+Dugdale's Baronage.

perambulated, and also all that free common from the rivulet which is called Makerellis, proceeding upwards as far as Grenesladesheved, and so westward over Eynonsdune by the way which leads to Brangweys, and thence as far as Corans heved and so onward to Howlake and thence to the top of Tadyshull, then downwards to Passenant's lake, and thus eastward as far as the bounds between Moldehulle and that carucate of land which formerly belonged to Richard the son of William; and so downwards to the river Taf, then as far as Heminghes will, thence upwards to Morestone and as far as Pensarnes. Then coming downwards to Blindwell and so far as . thence descending to the mouth of the river Taf, thence as far as Showellscroft, and upwards to Burch and Mere, and so descending to the long rock which is near our virgate of Thalacarn. Also we grant to them a way sixteen feet in width for driving their cattle from the common pasture aforesaid near Passenantslake down to the Taf. We grant moreover to the burgesses aforesaid, one customary acre in length and breadth for digging turf where they shall think fit in the Turbary adjoining Passenant's lake.

We grant also that they shall not lose their goods and chattels for the forfeiture or transgression of their servants, if found in the lands of the said servants or elsewhere by them deposited, as far as they can be shown to be theirs. And that if the said burgesses or any of them shall die within our land testate or intestate, neither we nor our heirs will cause their goods to be confiscated, but that they shall possess them entirely as far as the said chattels of the deceased may be reckoned to have been theirs, or their heirs may have knowledge or belief thereof. We also grant

that none of them within our land shall be accountable for the debt of any one his neighbour, unless he be his debtor or his surety; nevertheless that the surety of such person shall not be compelled to pay, while he has himself wherewithal to discharge the debt. And that all transgressions committed within the township be answered for as is customary in the borough of Kaermardyn. Also we grant that if any one of them shall incur forfeit towards another within the township, he shall not be committed within the Castle Gates, so long as he can find good and sufficient pledges of answering to the

We

right. Also that no one of them shall be compelled to lend to his lord or to any bailiff of his, more than twelve pence,§ unless he shall think fit for his own good will, and that no inquisition of foreign matters be made by the burgesses aforesaid, but by the free tenants of the country, nor any inquisition taken by foreigners relating to the burgesses. Also we grant to the said burgesses that they shall elect twice within the year two competent burgesses to the office of our Portreeve, to wit, one in the hundred (court) next after the feast of St. Michael, and another in the hundred (court) next after Easter, by the common consent of them all, and not by our bailiff's authority; to hold the hundred (court), take cognizance of attachments belonging to the hundred (court), and to receive the rents of the township and the toll, and that the said portreeves shall pay the rents and toll to us or our bailiff for that purpose appointed within the township of Thalacarne by tally, and that there shall be no other place for purchase or exchange or other service within or without the township which may be to their prejudice. also grant to the same that the said burgesses be free from all duty and service of ploughing, harrowing, taking up hay, reaping, and binding corn; from every kind of carriage, and from repairing the mill or its lake, and from every other service which may operate to their servitude and prejudice within or without the township; and that they shall not go to the army nor to guard their township as the burgesses of the hundred are accustomed to do. We will and grant that if any one of them shall purchase in the open day before his neighbours, any article afterwards claimed as stolen, he, the purchaser, shall lose nothing thereby if he shall prove on oath before his neighbours that he was ignorant that he bought the said article of the thief. And in order that this our grant and confirmation of our charter, for ourselves, our successors and assigns whomsoever, may remain for ever ratified, firm, and inviolable, we cor-. roborate it with the impression of our seal before these witnesses, Geoffry de Caunvill, Patrick de Chaworth, William de Caunvill, Thomas de Roche, Roger Corbet, knights, John Laundry, Walter Malenfant, Mared ab Traharn, Thomas Bonegent Clerk and others. (L. S.)

Guy de Brian was subsequently afflicted with imbecility of mind, and livery of his lands was made on certain conditions to his son, who died 17th June, 1349, 23d of Edward III. His successor was the celebrated Sir Guy Brian, the standard bearer of Edward III. and afterwards, in the forty-third year of that monarch's reign, admiral of the fleet employed against the French; two years after he was engaged in the Scottish wars, and was elected a knight of the garter. In the first year of the reign of Richard the Second he served in the wars of France, and accompanied that king in his Irish expedition. He seems to have taken great interest in the prosperity of his barony of Laugharne, and, from circumstances which will hereafter be noticed, to have rebuilt the parish church.

He married Elizabeth, daughter of William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, by whom he had a son bearing the usual baptismal name of the family, Guy. This son died during the lifetime of his father, leaving a daughter Philippa, married to Sir John Devereux, to whose possession, by some arrangement of marriage settlement, the barony of Laugharne devolved, and afterwards to Sir Walter Devereux his brother. Sir Guy Brian departed this life in 1391, and was buried in the abbey church of Tewkesbury, where his monument is still extant, surmounted by his effigy, and adorned with the armorial achievements of Brian and Montacute.*

To return to the descent of the castle and lordship of Laugharne; they were inherited by the grand-daughter of Sir Walter Devereux who married William Herbert, first Earl of Pembroke of that name. Maud, the issue of this marriage, espoused Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland. William Herbert was a firm friend and partizan of Edward IV, and had had grants from him in the first year of his reign of numerous lands and fortresses in South Wales, as the castles of Laugharne, St. Clare, Llanstephan, Tenby, Walwyns, Pembroke, &c. By Maud, above-named, he had a son Henry Percy Earl of Northum

berland, who was possessed of Laugharne Castle in the time of Henry VII. During the minority of his eldest son and heir Henry, a grant was made by the Crown, A.D. 1490, to one Robert Jay, an officer of the court, (designated as Valectus Hostiarius Cameræ,) for life, of the office of Forester, Hayward, and bailiff of the vill and demesne of Laugharne.†

The castle and barony of Laugharne continued in the family of Percy until the attainder of Thomas, Earl of Northumberland, in the reign of Elizabeth, when it escheated to the Crown. The celebrated Sir John Perrot, (a reputed natural son of Henry VIII. and half-brother of Queen Elizabeth,) Lord Deputy of Ireland, was then entrusted with the custody of the castle and demesne. Of Sir John Perrot I shall speak further when the ancient and present state of Laugharne Castle shall be noticed. On his falling into disgrace and being attainted of high treason, possession of the castle and lands was resumed by the Crown, who caused an inquisition to be made by jury of their condition. Charles the First granted these possessions to Sir Sackville Crow.

In 1644, when the loyalists were driven to maintain the cause of constitutional monarchy in the ancient feudal fortresses of the realm, Laugharne Castle was garrisoned for the king. It was besieged and taken by General William Laugharne after a vigorous resistance maintained, according to tradition, for three weeks. On this occasion Morgan Lloyd of the neighbouring parish of Llandawke was presented to the Parliament as a malig. nant," who, with others, supported the power of Russel and Gerard, then in arms against the Parliament; and that upon the approach of the Parliament forces to besiege Laugharne Castle, they removed their stock of cattle and other substance from the neighbourhood, far into the quarters of the royalists, who had broken down the bridges, &c. The articles of accusation against Lloyd were not prosecuted by the Parliament, when in the following year he fell into their power, a circumstance ascribed to the respect

and influence which he held in his own neighbourhood; on the 30th March 1645 the Committee appointed by the Parliament suffered him to depart on condition that he should appear before them again if summoned, On the restoration Charles II. granted the castle, &c. to Sir William Russel, who sold the property to Sir John Powel, knight, one of the judges who maintained the cause of liberty and true religion on the trial of the Seven Bishops; the castle now lay unroofed and dilapidated, having been set on fire by the victors of the Parliamentary faction; it was, therefore, uninhabitable, and Judge Powel erected for himself a residence at the Broadway, on the road from Laugharne to Tenby. The site of this mansion is now only indicated by its extensive garden walls and orchards. From his grand-daughter the lordship of Laugharne passed by sale to Pennoyre Watkins, Esq. whose grand-daughter, the widow of the late Richard Starke, Esq. is the present possessor. If I have been somewhat particular in tracing the descent of this royal demesne, the lover of topographical researches will pardon me; the majority of writers on Welsh antiquities content themselves with a few common-place descriptive repetitions, and are rather painters of scenery and picturesque circumstances than local historians. I shall next proceed to notice the present state of Langharne and its antiquities, and some of the old customs which are still retained by its inhabitants. A. J. K.

(To be continued.)

TYTLER'S ENGLAND, UNDER EDWARD VI. AND QUEEN MARY.

June 16.

MR. URBAN, IN the June number of your Magazine you have noticed at considerable length Mr. Tytler's recent work on the History of England during the reigns of Edward VI. and Queen Mary; and in so doing have entitled yourself to the thanks of all your readers, since it cannot be doubted that many years have elapsed since a work equally interesting to the English student, has appeared. At the same time, however, that your reviewer admits that it "will take a permanent place amongst the materials for the History of England," he has so pointedly cautioned subse

quent writers against adopting Mr. Tytler's conclusions, that it will not, I feel persuaded, seem strange that the lover of historic truth should anxiously beg to be supplied with a few examples of Mr. Tytler's unfair inferencesa few proofs that his book is not to be relied on.

The two principal characters to which your reviewer has directed the reader's critical attention, are those of Somerset and Cecil. As my object is to ascertain how far Mr. Tytler, as an historian, is to be relied on, and not to defend him, I shall offer no comment on the startling assertion that he "is very charitable in his consideration of great people," though your reviewer condemns him for defending Somerset at the expense of the Admiral; who, you must be aware, was as great, in his way, as Somerset. Your reviewer also condemns Mr. Tytler for depreciating Cecil, and Cecil was a greater man than either.

I see no grounds whatever for differing from Mr. Tytler in his estimate of Somerset's character, nor has your reviewer couched his reasons for so doing in terms which enable a reader to understand precisely what those reasons are. In other words he condemns Mr. Tytler's inferences without disproving them. On the subject of Cecil, however, he is more explicit, and states that Mr. Tytler has drawn an unfair inference from a very remarkable document which (unfortunately, I confess, for what "we have been told from childhood,") states that Cecil received mass and confessed at Wimbledon in 1556; Mr. Tytler's inference from that document being, that Cecil conformed outwardly during Queen Mary's reign to the Roman Catholic religion. Now, Sir, I thought it was a very well understood thing that Cecil did conform; and in support of this statement I beg leave to quote the following passage from a work which has no pretensions to critical accuracy, but which states the popular version of most of the stories which it has occasion to pass under review. 1 allude to Burke's Peerage and Baronetage of Great Britain, where, under the article "EXETER," I read as follows:

"Under the rule of Mary, although a zealous reformist previously, Sir William Cecil, with the tact of the renowned