The Story of a Quiet Country Parish, Being Gleanings of the History of Worthenbury, Flintshire
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3 1833 01941 3183 THE STORY OF A QUIET Gc 942.935019 W933p 1335236 ge:nz:."<l.c.3v col.l.ectiom \ : THE STORY OF A QUIET COUNTRY PARISH. BEING GLEANINGS OF THE HISTORY OF WORTHENBURY. FLINTSHIRE. BY THE RECTOR, THE REV. SIR T. H. GRESLEY PULESTON, BART, Xon^on THE ROXBURGHE PRESS, 3, VICTORIA STREET, WESTMINSTER. A. M. ROBINSON & SON, PRINTERS, DUKE STREET, BRIGHTON. CITY offices: I, LOMBARD COURT. «^ 1335236 TO THE SACRED MEMORIES OF THE PAST PREFACE Having inherited some notes on the Parish of Worthenbury, which I only recently read, I determined, with these and other means within my reach, to write all that I could gather of the history of my parish, knowing, however, perfectly well, how imperfect my work must be, yet bearing in mind Machiavelli's saying that " it was better to do things badly than not to do them at all." T. H. G. P. C(?c Slonj of a (Duiet Countrj) Parisl?, BEING GLEANINGS OF The History of Worthenbury, Flintshire. Although Worthenbury does not appear to have been the scene of any great historical events, yet I hope to put togfether some gatherings which may have interest for those who know it and love it. It is situated on the river Dee, is bounded on the south by Shropshire and on the north by Cheshire, and forms a part of the Hundred of Maelor, or Maelor Saesneo', to distinguish it from Maelor Cymraig in Denbighshire ; it is in the county of Flint, though separated from the main part of it by the portion of the county of Denbigh in the neigh- bourhood of Wrexham, through which one must pass for live or six miles before again touching Flint- shire. The Hundred of Maelor Saesner^' is about nine miles long by three and a half wide, and consists — lO of the Parishes of Bangor, Isycoed, Hanmer, Over- ton, part of Penley, part of Iscoed in the Parish of Malpas and Worthenbury ; also on the Welsh side of the river Dee, of the Parish of Erbistock. Pennant tells us there are several spots belonging to this Hundred, insulated by Denbighshire, which form nearly a connection betv^een this and the other part of the Hundred, and the chain is supposed once to have been entire, but many of the links were only fields which have now been lost to the county. One of the Townships in the Parish of Holt is known to have belonged to this Hundred Abenbury Fechan, a disjointed bit in the Parish of Wrexham ; Merford and Osley, in the Parish of Gresford, were added by Henry VHI. to Flintshire, and still form part of the county. If all the missing links spoken of by Pennant could be found, we should not be as much separated from our county as we now are. It may be of interest to add here that the name of Gresford, anciently Groesfordd, or the Road of the Cross, is supposed to be derived from an old cross, the shaft of which is still standing within half a mile of the Church. It is very difficult to form an opinion where the first inhabitants of Britain came from, but Tacitus and Caesar seem to have no doubt they came from Gaul, The country of Britain was divided into a number of small states, with a king over each, one of whom was chosen as a leader in the time of war ; the people were considered brave and honest, easily provoked, but sincere and generous ; they lived in huts of wattlework covered with clay ; their food was flat cakes of bread, the flesh of animals killed in the chase, and milk. They were clothed with the skins of animals, which also formed the covering of the coracles in which they paddled along their rivers ; their favourite beverage was metheglin, a fermented liquor made from honey, which is still used in some parts of Wales ; bows and arrows with long spears were their implements of warfare, supplemented by chariots drawn by their ponies with scythes fixed on either side. The priests and philosophers of the Britons were the Druids, by whom they were held in great veneration, not only for their learning but also because they were chosen from the most dis- tinguished families. The word Druid is derived from the word Derw, meaning the oak, which they 12 worshipped and held especially sacred when a sprig of mistletoe was found growing on it. The ancient Britons were idolators, and frequently sacrificed human beings to their gods. The remains of several of their temples are still to be seen in Anglesey and at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, and wonderful works they are. When Julius Csesar with his Roman army invaded Britain, 55 B.C., he found, as we may suppose, a very undisciplined but courageous force to oppose him, and we learn from him that the Britons had attained some civilisation, were much given to hospitality, and that they enter- tained their guests with the music of the harp, then, as now, the national instrument of Wales. The bards occupied an important position in the governing body of the nation ; they were not onl}- poets and minstrels, but also historians. Their object in life was said to be " to make manifest the truth and to diffuse the knowledge of it." One of the books which is supposed to date from their time is called the Triads. It was a traditional historic record, and on that account is most interesting. The people of this part of the country are descended from the ancient Britons, as for a long period they 13 did not mix with the Saxons, and indeed, were for a long time at war with them, though no doubt in the process of time they did more or less intermarry with the Anglo-Saxon people. When "the Romans landed at or near Deal, the Britons fought so bravely that it was with the greatest difficulty that they effected a landing, and possibly they would have been driven away, but for the determined bravery of the Standard bearer of, I think, the loth Legion, who jumped into the sea with his standard and called upon his comrades to defend it— it was the greatest disgrace to a Roman soldier to lose this or his shield, which the Roman mother, when strapping on her son, enjoined him either to return with it or on it. Happily for us the Romans effected a landing and instructed our forefathers in all the arts of civilised Rome, during thf^ time they remained on this Island ; for the Roman soldier then was not only a disciplined soldier but a skilful mechanic, as we may learn from Froude's " Life of Julius Caesar," as well as from the splendid specimens that may now be seen among us of their work in Chester and other parts of England. But especially are we indebted to the Romans for their exertions 14 in trying to bring us to the knowledge of our Saviour. In A.D. i8o, Lucius, a king of Britain, was by the preaching of one of the Christian Fathers converted to the faith. He is said to have founded the monastery of Bangor as a seat of learning, or at all events to have done all that he could for the good cause. An Emperor of Rome,Constantine Clor, married Princess Helena, a Briton, and their son, Constantine the Great, was the iirst Christian Emperor. He too furthered the vs'ork, and so from a very early date Christianity flourished in Britain, though it was from a still earlier period established in Wales. The Romans left Britain, a.d. 448, as their troops were wanted at home. Then the Britons having no longer the disciplined legions of Rome to help them to resist the incursions of their troublesome neigh- bours, the Picts and Scots, sought help from the Saxons who were so pleased with Britain that the)^ determined to conquer it for themselves, which they ultimately did ; thus in a very short time, the laws, language, and people, were changed on this Island ; and after the defeat of Caractacus the Britons were little better than slaves. Cadwallader was the last of the British race who enjoyed the title of King of — 15 Britain, though the Cambrians set up a new Govern- ment for themselves after his death ; but their rulers were called Princes of Wales, and with these Cambrians rested the remains of the British nation. In ancient time the rivers Severn and Dee separated Wales from England ; but as a protection in the perpetual border frays, Offa, King of Mercia, made a dyke, which was probably in his time the real boundary between England and Wales, and to this day the Welsh language generally prevails on the Cambrian side of it, while it is seldom spoken by the dwellers on the English side. This dyke extended, it is said, from Prestatyn on the Dee to a little below Bristol. The earliest notice known of the Hundred of Maelor is about the middle of the 6th century Bangor Monastery was then flourishing, though there were at that time perpetual conflicts between the Saxons, who were trying to win, and the Britons who were striving to save their country. About 540 A.D., Cunetha Whedig succeeded in right of his mother to the sovereignty of Cambria, afterwards his sons and grandsons sub-divided the country among them, giving their own names to them ; one i6 of thern was named Maelor and he was master of the two Maelors, Saesneg and Cymraig.