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LLANSILIN: Geographical and Historical information from the year 1831.

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"LLANSILIN, a parish, in the union of OSWESTRY, chiefly in the Cynlleth division of the hundred of CHIRK, county of DENBIGH, NORTH WALES, extending also into the English county of SALOP, in which it comprises the township of Sychdin, or Soughton, 6 miles (S.) from Oswestry; and containing 2083 inhabitants, of which number 1832 are in the county, of Denbigh. This parish, which is from seven tb eight miles in length, and from four to five in breadth, is finely situated on the river Cynlieth: the lands are inclosed and in a high state of cultivation; and the soil is fertile and productive, the rateable annual value being returned at £6146: the surrounding scenery is richly varied, and the views over the adjacent country abound with interest and variety. Gliisgoed, an ancient seat of the family of Kyffin, afterwards conveyed by marriage to Sir William 'Williams, Speaker of the House of Commons, and now the property of his descendant, Sir Welch' Williams Wynne, Bart., forms an interesting feature in the scenery of the place; and Plan Newydd, formerly the seat of a branch of the Myddeltons of Chirk Castle; and Pen-y-Bont, at one period the property of the family of Maurice, are also within the parish. Here was likewise an old residence of Owain Glyndwr, called Sycharth, which was seated on an eminence and surrounded by a park, containing fish-ponds, deer, &c., the beauties of which are described by his bard, Iolo Goch, in a poem still extant. It was occupied by this chief before his removal to Glyn-Dyvrdwy, or the Valley of the Dee, between Llangollen and borwen, where Sycharth has commonly, but erroneously, been supposed to have stood. The court of the manor of Cynlleth Owain was kept in the parlour of the mansion, until towards the close of the last century: at present there are scarcely any remains of the building. Above the house are the ruins of a keep, or castellet, surrounded with a high mound and deep ditch. The manufacture of flannel is carried on to a small extent; on the river Cynlleth is a fulling-mill, which prepares the flannel for the Montgomeryshire markets; and another small concern is chiefly employed in spinning yarn for the manufacturers at Oswestry. Fairs, chiefly for the sale of live stock, are annually held in the village on April 5th, July 10th, and September 21st. The living is a vicarage, rated in the king's books at £t3; present net income, £307; patron, Bishop of St. Asaph: the tithes of the Welsh portion of the parish, consisting of several townships, have been commuted for various rent-charges, amounting to £655, of which a sum of £431. 2. 2. is payable to the Bishop, Dean, and Chapter, with a small glebe attached, of nearly 51 acres; £219 to the vicar, who has also two small glebes, of nearly 51 acres; and £5 to the parish-clerk; the whole subject to rates, averaging £25. 15. 6. per annum. he church, dedicated to St. Giles, is a spacious and handsome structure, in the later style of English architecture, with a very neat tower, erected in 1831; and a new church built on the confines of the parish, at Rhydycroesan was consecrated in August 1858, and contains 300 sittings, of which 200 are free. There are places of worship for Baptists and Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. About 60 children are instructed in two day schools connected with Calvisistic Methodists; a National school, containing about 60 children daily, with a few in addition on Sundays, is partly supported by £4, allowed towards the education of poor children, partly by subscription, but chiefly by payments from the parents; and there are several Sunday schools, appertaining to dissenters and conducted by voluntary teachers, in which are about 200 males and females. Watkin Kyffin, in 1700, bequeathed £52, and Edward Maurice, in 1732, left £26, the interest of both sums for distribution weekly in bread to the poor. In 1740 Sir William Williams bequeathed to the parish the sum of £200, and the estates of the Williams' family having come into the possession of the house of Wynnstay, on the union of the two by marriage, it is supposed that a sum of £10, annually paid before Christmas by the agent of Sir W. W. Wynne, is the interest of this legacy, now become a charge on the estate. Among the other benefactors of the parish were Sir William Myddelton, who, in 1717, bequeathed £20; Mrs. Ann Myddelton, who left £42; Richard Williams and John Foulkes, who each left £20; and Mr. Price Maurice £27: these are among the consolidated charities, which include other minor gifts, and, with the proceeds arising from someportions of land severally bequeathed by Edward ap Thomas, in 1657, and by Mrs. Rogers and others, form a fund for distribution to the poor on St. Thomas's-day. The parish is incorporated with the adjacent one of Chirk, and with nine or ten others in the county of Salop, for the common support of their poor in the house of industry at Oswestry. Huw Morris, the poet, as he is emphati- Bally called, because be excelled an others in the smooth and flowing awe*, or song writing, was a native of the parish: he was born at Pont-y-Meibioa in the valley of Ceiriog, in 1622, and died in 1709, as appears from his tombstone in the churchyard, having lived in six reigns, exclusively of the period of the commonwealth: his songs, carols, and other pieces, some hundreds in number, and many of them adapted to the times, have been collected, and were published in two volumes, at Wrexham, in 1823."

" SOUGHTON, a township in that part of the parish of LLANSILIN, which is in the hundred of OSWESTRY, county of SALOP, 3 miles (S. W. by W.) from Oswestry, containing 249 inhabitants."

[Transcribed information from A Topographical Dictionary of England - Samuel Lewis - 1831](unless otherwise stated)

[Description(s) transcribed by Mel Lockie ©2015]