Uncle William Vaughan 1768 Leasing from Viscount Hereford in 1847

Well, I'd found it before but it sort of shocked me when it popped up on the bottom of the page I was crowd-sourcing for the National Library of Wales, Tithing Maps project. These pages can get very tedious especially going through multiple pages of the property of Viscount Hereford, i.e., Robert Devereux, 15th Viscount Hereford, who held the title from 1843-1855. And the funny thing is that William Vaughan is there sort of out of place in the middle of the Viscount's vast Tregoyd Estate which was farther up the road. ["Tregoyd," by the way, is bastardized English for "Tregoed" or "Woodtown/village/home." Never ask a dang Saxon to translate Cymraeg for you!]

This is kind of sad, too, because William, brother of Hannah/Joanna Vaughan 1763, was in this home likely from before 1832 when he shows up on a Voter Register living at Fir Tree Cottage in Freehold - which would have qualified him to be a voter. Some economic reversal made him a tenant of the Viscount in the same home by 1847. William shows up with the approximately correct ages in the Censuses of 1841 and 1851 on the same street of "Heolegare" [very bad Welsh! Should be Heol-y-gaer."] And he is a former butcher!

Being a Viscount, Hereford (AKA Robert Devereux) owned a lot of property in Herefordshire along with much of East-Central Wales up against the English Border. He was a Viscount after all. This connection with the Viscount brings me back to my suspicions that it could have been a Court Leet of the 13th Viscount Hereford that would have put Rees Price in gaol [jail] in Hay Castle for failure to pay his maintenance in bastardy for his son, our John Vaughan 1789.

Here's the Wikipedia info on Hereford the 13th:

George Devereux, 13th Viscount Hereford (25 April 1744 – 31 December 1804) was a British Peer.

He was the second son of Edward Devereux, 11th Viscount Hereford and his wife Catherine Mytton. His maternal grandparents were Richard Mytton of Pontyscowryd and Garth, High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire and Dorothy Wynn.

On 15 December 1768, George married his 3rd cousin, Marianna Devereux. His namesake father-in-law was George Devereux of Tregoyd. They had five children:

• Henry Devereux, 14th Viscount Hereford (9 February 1777 – 31 May 1843).
• Marianna Devereux (d. 9 December 1847). Married Sir James Cockburn, 9th Baronet.
• Charlotte Henrietta Marianna Devereux (d. 9 December 1847). Married Henry Wellington of Hay Castle.
• Juliana Stratford Marianna Devereux (d. 1850). Married Henry Eyre of Botleigh Grange.
• Catherine Eliza Marianna Devereux (d. 1856). Married first Walter Wilkins of Maeslough Castle ["Maesllwch" in Glasbury Parish] and secondly William Richard Stretton.

His older brother Edward Devereux, 12th Viscount Hereford had succeeded their father but died childless on 1 August 1783. George succeeded him and further Viscount Hereford descend from him.

Ah, see, Tregoyd Estate pops in there again!

I've looked at the online indices with the extensive files of the Viscounts of Hereford in the Natonal Archives of England in Kew. It would take some work to dig out what we need and I won't have time on this year's trip. Maybe it's time to engage another researcher.

We only have a few snapshots in time. I would like to see more extensive tenancy records and that Court Leet, if possible. (Of course the Vestries in Glasbury or Hay could have also sent him there as well, but no records have surfaced).

We keep on going as the plot constantly thickens.