In 1763, when Rector Owen Morgan died after an incumbency of 50 years, the established church, locally and nationally, was in a period of decline and was to continue in blissful torpor until the Oxford movement of the 1930s.  Its bishops were predominantly public figures, indolence, non-residence and plurality were common in a church where intellectual and pastoral activities were too often neglected for more secular ambitions.  Theophilus Jones writing in 1805 about the condition of Llanfihangel Talyllyn church, referred to a ‘whitened (sic) sepulchre’, noting a collapsing chancel, an altar consisting of a dirty cloth covering two nailed boards and a sheep-pen serving as a pulpit.  This would have been typical of many churches at the time, but Jones tells us nothing about people.  Research on tombstone inscriptions and church records revealed that between 1767 and 1815 records were kept by the curate, Thos. Lewis; the Rectors of that period, two Richard Davies’, appear to have been non-resident.  Although much remains obscure, we can trace a pattern in one small village which must have been typical of the period.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, three generations of Richard Davies were vicars of Brecon.  Circumstantial evidence is strong that two of them held Llanfihangel Talyllyn in plurality - dates tally, the Rector’s signature never appears on any of the registers, a curate, a decrepit church, family connections - all these indicate plurality, with the work done by poorly paid curates; Archdeacon R. Davies who succeeded his father in both parishes in 1804, founded Benevolent Schools in Brecon and gave £105 for the purchase of a school building in Llanfihangel Talyllyn. The Davies family also held the livings of Cathedine and Llangasty for a time.

Thos. Lewis, probably appointed curate  in 1761 was periodically relicensed to “read common prayers &  other ecclesiastical duties”  he was paid £40 per annum in 1788, his fitness for office testified to by other local clergy who declared him to have lived “ for the past three years  a sober, honest, pious and Godly life.”  Lewis was obviously a methodical man; his writing is legible and literate and he gives interesting detail about some of those baptised or buries - occupation, causes of death such as smallpox or decline, bastardy etc.  His life was hard, with a standard of living not much better than that of his parishioners; he recorded the burial of his daughter in 1795 and wife in 1812.  In 1814 his patron dismissed him from the curacy of Llanywern and he appealed in a deferential letter to the Bishop of St. Davids, stating that he was the oldest curate in the Deanery at 79, concerned at the loss of half his income “nothing else to support myself, my son who is nearly blind and his two children”, begging “and inestimable mark of your Lordship's Beneficence to a poor curate who must go, by the course of nature (soon) to his long-home”.  We know that Lewis was re-appointed to Llanfihangel Talyllyn that year at a stipend of £40 to be paid quarterly, together with ”surplice fees and use of the Rectory House, Gardens and Office”.  The following year he died.  

It would be interesting to know more about Lewis.  His time here spans the region of George III - appointed 15 years before the American revolution, he lived to hear of victory at Waterloo; his registers show a knowledge of the village that may reflect his pastoral concern.  In 1818 his son made petition to the “Society for. Relief necessitous clergymen widows and orphans”.  This orphan, aged 50 lived in a rented house with no income save manual labour, no property other than a cow and household furniture and “no prospect but to support himself, wife and children, by working as a common labourer”.  The petition is marked with an “X”; was this due to lack of education or because he had “ a rupture and the loss of one of his eyes, and a defect in the sight of the other”?  We do not learn the outcome but the younger Lewis probably died in 1845; all the family burials are recorded but the graves are unmarked.  In 1822 curacies ended, Richard Davies resigned the living, thus releasing it for his kinsman Hugh Bold.

Research and article prepared by James Hickson, Glantawel  


Local Funeral customs

In order to stop a corpse swelling a saucer of salt or a piece of turf would be laid on the breast and a pan of water placed underneath.  Rue, hyssop and wormwood were put in the coffin.

After a meal of home cured ham, the company were invited to take one last look at the deceased before the coffin lid was fastened down.  The body was carried out by special bearers and placed upon the bier around which everyone stood.  Cake and wine were then produced and care taken to pass them around from east to west or ‘the way of the sun’ as this was thought to be important.   The corpse was carried through the front door feet first and then turned with its face to the east.