GENUKI : Nantglyn, St. James

Nantglyn

"A parish in the Union of Ruthin, hundred of Isaled, county of Denbigh, 4 miles (SW) from Denbigh; containing 391 inhabitants. This parish, which is situated on a branch of the river Clwyd, nearly in the centre of the county, extends almost seven miles in length, and four miles and a half in breadth, comprising an area of 5600 acres, of which 3460 are common or waste. The scenery is agreeably diversified, though not distinguished by any striking peculiarity of feature; the views are confined towards the south and west by loft hills. ..... Mr David Samuel, who sailed with Captain Cook, a surgeon in the ship "Discovery", and was an eye witness of his death, of which he wrote an interesting account, printed in the Biographica Britannica, was a native of this place."
[A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 1833 & 1849, Samuel Lewis]

The ancient parish comprised the four townships of Blaenau, Cwmllwm, Hendre, and Plas.

Church History
Church Records
Civil Registration

Population
Statistics

Church History

Ordnance Survey reference SJ 004621.
There is evidence that there was a church at Nantglyn from a very early date, situated a few hundred yards from the site of the present church. The church, which is dedicated to St. James, was mentioned in the Norwich Taxation of 1254.
The present building was partly rebuilt in 1777, and was almost entirely rebuilt in 1862.

The Clwyd FHS website has a photograph of the church.

Nonconformist Churches

"Welsh Church Commission - County of Denbigh - The Statistics of the Nonconformist Churches for 1905" lists the following nonconformist places of worship in the Civil parish of Nantglyn :

Name of Chapel	Denomination	Number of "adherents"
Waen	Calvinistic Methodists	216
Salem	Congregationalists	65

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Church Records

Parish Registers

The following Parish Registers have been deposited at the Denbighshire Record Office, Ruthin.
They may be viewed on microfilm at the Denbighshire and Flintshire Record Offices, and at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
These microfilms are not available elsewhere.

Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
1719 - 1794 1813 - 1993	1720 - 1753 1755 - 1773 1792 - 1967	1719 - 1794 1813 - 1958

Clwyd FHS has published full transcriptions of the registers (complete with indexes) for the following years :

Baptisms	Marriages	Burials
1663 - 1812	1664 - 1812	1663 - 1812

Bishop's Transcripts

Bishop's Transcripts for the years shown below have been deposited in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Around the year 1951, most of the Bishop's Transcripts which had been deposited at that time were microfilmed by the LDS; and the films are available on request at Family History Centres of the LDS.
The films may also be viewed at the Denbighshire and Flintshire Record Offices, and at the National Library of Wales.

Deposited at the National Library of Wales	Microfilmed copies
1663 - 1854	1663 - 1854

I.G.I.

There are no official I.G.I. entries for St. James, Nantglyn.

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Civil Registration

When Civil Registration was introduced (on 1 July 1837), the parish of Nantglyn was assigned to the No. 4 ("Gyffylliog") sub-district of the Ruthin Registration District; which was co-extensive with the Ruthin poor law Union.

In the GRO indexes to civil registration, entries for Nantglyn are in the format :

Years 1837 - 1851: Ruthin XXVII.nnn
Years 1851 - 1930: Ruthin 11b.nnn

(GRO index references have no relevance at the local Superintendent Registrar's Office)

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Population

In 1831- the population was 345.
In 1901- the population was 407.
[Royal Commission on the Welsh Church - October 1907]

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Statistics

Archdeacon Thomas gives the area of the parish as 26 square miles.
[ The History of the Diocese of St. Asaph , 1908-1913, Ven. D.R. Thomas]

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Last Updated 23 Nov 2009 - Gareth Hicks