Hugh Hughes

Hugh, the second son of Simon Hugh of Henllys was brought up on the tiny, isolated farm, Ty Mawr, Ynyslas. It was a challenging distance from Tal-y-bont and even from Llanfihangel Geneeu’r Glyn (Llandre), for a father wishing to get some schooling for his son, and it is possible Hugh had very little formal education. However, although the mountains were quite close, and the immediate surroundings were the sea, the dunes and the marshes of the Cors Fochno, Aberdovey, with its close shipping links with Ireland, was easily reached across the estuary. Hugh and his brothers probably talked with all kinds of travellers who were passing along the drove road and over the ferry. At the end of the 18th century there was considerable activity going on the southern shore, including a sawmill near Ty Mawr, boat-building which must have been connected with the saw-mill, quarrying near Ty Mawrm a smeltery and a salt works.

Hugh’s father died in 1785 aged only fifty-seven. There is circumstantial evidence backing up a persistent family legend that the three brothers went over to Ireland and that the two younger brothers remained there. John would have been 21 but the others were only 18 and 15. One can suggest all kinds of motives for the move but it must have seemed an exciting adventure even if poverty was one factor in their decision. Times were very bad for farmers, with heavy taxes and parish charges. Unfortunately it is very difficult to find out anything about that episode now. The brothers may have joined one of the militia bands which were recruited at the end of the 18th century to quell the spreading unrest in Ireland, but there do not seem to be any records of recruitment.

No records have come to light about the lives of the brothers in Ireland and it does not seem possible to find out exactly when they returned to Wales. Apparently Hugh and Lewis did not return until they had spent many years, (perhaps as many as seventeen) in Ireland and had married there. John had returned by 1789 (if he had gone at all) and Hugh and Lewis by 1803. A family legend, printed in an obituary in the Cambrian Times on 14th February 1919 says that Hugh and Lewis had returned together, landing at Aberdovey and crossing over by the ferry to Ynyslas. Hugh settled down at Ty Mawr while Lewis went to live at Staylittle and later at Pentrebach, on the other side of the Cors Fochno. Hugh, recorded as a widower, remarried in Llanfihangel Geneu’r Glyn in 1815. He was 48 and his second wife, Anne Jones of Llancynfelin, was 27. Mention has to be made of an entry in the LGG baptismal register of a daughter, Jane, bp.1811 and a son, Lewis, in 1813, born to a father, Hugh Hughes but this appears to refer to a different Hugh. All the local records show that the names Hugh, John and Lewis Hughes are extremely

common at that time in that area.

Hugh and Anne had four children, the first being born when Hugh was 54 years old and the youngest when he was 62. The children were Mary, John, David and Hugh. Both John and young Hugh lived at home and worked the farm while David left home.

Hugh farmed Ty Mawr for 37 years. A small house was built onto the end of the old primitive dwelling and it appears to date from the middle of the C19. It could have been built by Hugh for his bride, Anne. It was a simple house but at least it was far more up-todate and comfortable than the old dwelling. The family lived there until Hugh died, aged 85, in 1852.

The first half of the 19th century was a period of many dramatic changes and developments in the area which it is necessary to record. Probably the most far-reaching was the virtual disappearance of the small freehold farms as a few big landowners bought up farms and land. Locally the Gogerddan estate and Matthew Davies Williams owned

most of the farms in Henllys and Ynyslas. In the Tithe records in 1840, Hugh rented Ty Mawr, with its 118 acres of land, from Matthew Davies William of Cwmcynfelin. It is possible that Simon Hughes had rented it, not owned it, in the late 1700s.

Another momentous change at that time was the loss of common land rights by successive enclosure acts which had, by 1815 affected most of the area, with the poorest people suffering most. It brought an end to the old way of life whereby free pasture and peat were available on the common land which included the Cors Fochno. The primitive nature of the original dwelling calling itself Ty Mawr Ynyslas belonged to that way of life.

An old estate map shows that, from the very beginning of the 19th century, the big landowners and some speculators had schemes to drain the peat bogs. In 1824 a straight channel was dug to take the waters of the Afon Leri due north into the Dyfi estuary. They had formerly meandered sluggishly through the marshes to the sea near Aberleri. Ty Mawr stood close by the new channel and also near the only bridge over the Leri for two miles so it was an advantageous spot. At that time there was a saw-mill very near, at Ynyslas, which probably supplied the ship-builders who were working further up the estuary and at Aberdyfi. Heavy loads would certainly be landed near the saw-mill, using the new channel through the tidal sands rather than at the old ferry-landing place out on the dunes.

There was considerable improvement to the roads between 1820 and 1835, and droving began to decline as heavier loads could now be moved by carts. Eventually, with the opening of the railway from Aberystwyth to Machynlleth in 1864 the droving died out. Travelers began to go by train from Aberystwyth to Machynlleth and thence to North Wales, rather than using the old ferry on Ynyslas. The drove road must have been almost abandoned by the late 19th century, and this must have greatly affected anyone living at Ty Mawr.

In 1840, as well as the farm, Hugh also rented 14 acres of pasture from Pryse. In addition, he owned 56 acres of 'allotment' and 18 acres of pasture. Locally this seems to have been a very considerable farm. In the 1851 census, when he was over 84, Hugh was farming a reduced acreage of 85 acres, with the help of just one son, John. Old Hugh died in 1852.

When the railway was built in 1854 it crossed the new channel of the Afon Leri a little to the west of Ty Mawr, Ybysl and ran through the land of Ynyslas farm, close to the estuary. Within ten years of Old Hugh’s death Hugh’s son, John went to live in Borth with his mother and sister. He probably made a bit of money by selling some of the land he had inherited.

In the census 1861 John Hughes is a 'retired farmer' in Borth aged 38. He married late and had a son, Jonathan, who, when he grew up, was ordained and lived at St. Mary's, Nantddu, Merthyr Tydfil. John's brother, David became a farmer and the other brother, Hugh, kept the Prince Albert Inn, in Aberystwyth. He was alive, aged over 91, in 1919. It seems possible that this “young” Hugh was the source of the misleading 'Family History' contributed by old Dr. Davies to the obituary of Arthur Hughes in 1919.