ITEM NO: 1992396 Bound by BOOKBINDING $ABBEY; . PRINTING Unit 3 Gabalfa Workshops Excelsior Ind. Est. Cardiff CF14 3AY Tel: (029) 2062 3290 Fax: (029) 2062 5420 Email: [email protected] Web: www.abbeybookbindlng co uk ADAM N. COWARD MAGIC AND THE SUPERNATURAL IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY WALES: THE WORLD OF THE REV. EDMUND JONES (1702-1793) SUBMITTED FOR: PHD (HISTORY) UNIVERSITY OF WALES, NEWPORT APRIL 2012 This thesis was submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wales foi the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed ..WW.feffWft^ff................................. (candidate) STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. Where correction services have been used, the extent and nature of the correction is clearly marked in a footnote(s). Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signed &*&**:>!*&*£?'..... ............................... (candidate) STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 11 ABBREVIATIONS in INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I: 16 THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY NORTH-WEST MONMOUTHSHIRE CHAPTER II: 66 BELIEF IN A CHANGING SOCIETY: THE EXAMPLE OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY NORTH-WEST MONMOUTHSHIRE CHAPTER III: 105 RELIGION, REVIVALISM, AND THE 'OLD PROPHET' CHAPTER IV: 151 EDMUND JONES'S THEOLOGY, REVIVALISM, AND THE BELIEF IN SPIRITS CH AFTER V: 185 EDMUND JONES'S BELIEF IN APPARITIONS AND THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY INTELLECTUAL ENVIRONMENT CHAPTER VI: 223 INTERROGATING THE EVIDENCE: SPIRITS, FOLKLORE, AND CULTURE______ CONCLUSION 267 BIBLIOGRAPHY 274 LIST OF FIGURES MAP!: IV GwA, MS. C. Misc. MAPS 61, T. KITCHEN, 'MONMOUTHSHIRE, DRAWN FROM THE BEST AUTHORITIES' (1769). SUMMARY The Rev. Edmund Jones (1702-1793), the 'Old Prophet' of the Transh, Pontypool, is a fascinating character for many reasons, not least of which is his writing on apparitions, spirits, fairies, and magic in his Geographical, Historical, and Religious Account of the Parish of Aberystruth (1779) and Relation ofApparitions of Spirits in the Principality of Wales (1780). These works were not merely written for an antiquarian purpose, but rather present a defence of Jones's deep-seated belief in these spirits' existence. On the surface, such a belief, professed so late in the eighteenth century, may seem 'unenlightened' or atavistic, but far from it, Jones's belief was consistent with his overarching cultural worldview which was set within and influenced by the environment in which he lived. This study examines that environment in an attempt to understand the contexts and formation of Jones beliefs and writings. It begins by examining the socio-economic changes occurring in eighteenth-century north-western Monmouthshire, focusing on changes in transport and communication, industry and social composition, literacy and the availability of printed word, the medical industry, and systems of charity and welfare; and the impact of these different social elements on the way in which the supernatural was conceptualized in local culture. The second section focuses on Jones's role as a religious figure involved in the eighteenth-century religious Revival and the state of religion in the area before turning to Jones's theology and how this impacted on his conceptualization of spirits and their interaction with the mundane realm. The study then turns to the intellectual environment in which Jones wrote and how his works fit with contemporary intellectual trends. Finally, the thesis examines the folkloric content of Jones's works and the ways in which all of the disparate environmental elements discussed throughout demonstrate themselves in his writings. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study has been a product of more than myself, and there are more people than I can remember here who deserve my appreciation and thanks. I would like to begin by thanking my supervisors, Dr Richard Alien and Professor Raymond Howell for their support, encouragement, and assistance. It was Richard who gave me the opportunity to study in Wales, and he who suggested Edmund Jones as a possible area of research; without his patience, guidance, and support, this study would not have been possible. There have been many academics who have been willing to give their time and energy and to offer advice and direction in this study. I would like to thank Dr Marion Lb'ffler and Dr Catherine Charnell-White at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Aberystwyth, for their advice and encouragement, Dr Robert Tyler for his help in partially translating Carol James's thesis as well as direction in locating sources, and Dr Alun Withey, Dr Lisa Tallis, and Dr Juliette Wood for their advice and direction. Special thanks must go to Angus McBlane, whose innumerable discussions and debates with me have greatly helped with the formation of this thesis, as well as my patience and perseverance in writing it. I also must thank the staff and librarians at the National Library of Wales, Gwent Archives, and Cardiff and Newport Public libraries for their assistance and guidance in using their invaluable collections. Lastly and most especially, my deepest gratitude goes to my family, my parents and grandparents, for their unwavering support (both moral and financial) and faith. A special thanks is reserved for my grandparents, Lew and Dee Tidd who, above everyone, have made this study possible. ABBREVIATIONS CL - Cardiff Public Library GwA - Gwent Archives NL - Newport Public Library NLW - National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth Map 1: GwA, MS. C. Misc. Maps 61, T. Kitchen, 'Monmouthshire, Drawn from the best Authorities' (1769). IV INTRODUCTION Now the reader may be desirous to know whether I my self have had any experience of apparitions and agencies of spirits, who have produced so many instances of this from others, and have written with some asperity against those who deny apparitions and the agencies of spirits in the world. In answer to this, and to gratify the enquiry, I avow that my experience this way have been very great. Not only in the common way of temptation, but in an extraordinary way beyond most men, and beyond any of the ministers of the word in all Wales. Was I to write all my experiences this way, it would amount to a book of no small size; therefore I shall only write something in the general of my experiences of this sort and relate only some particulars. 1 Although no source in which he chronicled all of his personal encounters with the supernatural exists, knowledge of fairies and spirits in eighteenth-century Wales would be strikingly lacking without the works of the Rev. Edmund Jones, 'the Old Prophet' (1702- 1793). An Independent preacher from Aberystruth parish in north-west Monmouthshire, Jones is best known for his Geographical, Historical, and Religious Account of the Parish of Aberystruth (1779), which contained a notable chapter on 'Apparitions and Agencies of the Fairies &c.', and his Relation of Apparitions of Spirits in the Principality of Wales (1780). Thomas Rees described the latter work as 'a very curious production, full of very strange ghost stories as no nervous person should read in the night'.2 These works have provided a source for later work on Welsh folk- and fairy-lore. Wirt Sikes, in his British Goblins: Welsh Folk-Lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions (1880), used Jones extensively as a source for his section on fairies and Sir John Rhys, in his Celtic Folklore: 1 CL, MS. 2.249, Rough draft of Edmund Jones's Apparitions of Spirits with additional materials, p. 294 2 Thomas Rees, History of Protestant Nonconformity in Wales, From its Rise in 1633 to the Present Time (2->nd edn, London: John Snow and Co., 1882), p. 407. 1 Welsh and Manx (1901), directed any readers curious about fairy-lore in Monmouthshire to Jones's works.3 Despite his works' utility, however, modern historians of folklore have not given much attention to 'the Old Prophet'. Jones is not mentioned by Guiseppe Cocchiara, who looked at the history of the study of popular antiquities and folklore on a European wide level, nor Richard Dorson, who focused on Britain, nor even Juliette Wood, who focused on Wales.4 This is possibly because Jones's intention in writing was not that of a folklorist.5 Even though Account of the Parish ofAberystruth was written with an antiquarian purpose in mind, his work on apparitions was motivated by his strong belief in the actual existence of ghosts, fairies, and witchcraft, connected to his religious belief, with the aim of preventing 'the infidelity of denying the being and apparition of spirits, which tends to irreligion and atheism'.6 This may seem odd given that Jones wrote in the late-eighteenth century, almost a hundred years later than similar writers, notably Richard Baxter, Joseph Glanvill, and Meric Causabon.7 However, if this is the case, how did Jones come to believe such things? This question is not asked incredulously. What factors helped in the formation of Jones's thought, and how did his belief in spirits mesh with other cultural and religious beliefs and community values? In recent years, historians of the supernatural have begun to turn to areas which have been hitherto underexplored. Most notably, witchcraft historiography has increasingly looked outside its comfort zone of the witch trials to explore the post-witch trial period and focus on nations which did not experience a 3 For example see Wirt Sikes, British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions (London: Sampson Low, 1880), pp 103-13; John Rhys, Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx (2 vols, London: Wildwood House Limited, 1980), I, p.