Hide

ST DOGWELLS - from Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Wales (1833)

hide
Hide

DOGWELL'S, ST. (ST. DOGVAEL'S), a parish in the hundred of DEWISLAND, county of PEMBROKE, SOUTH WALES, 9 miles (N.) from Haverfordwest, on the road from that town to Fishguard, containing 514 inhabitants. This parish is noted, on traditional authority, as the birthplace and place of burial of that distinguished patriot and chieftain, Owain Glyndwr, who is said to have been born at Little Trêfgarn and to have been interred at the small village of Wolf's Castle, both situated within its limits. The manor of St. Dogwell's was granted to the upper chapter of St. David's by Sir Richard Symmond, Knt., in 1328, for the maintenance of two priests in the cathedral church of that place, to say mass for the benefit of his soul and that of his wife: the rectorial tithes of the parish had been given to the same body by Bishop Thomas Wallensis, in the year 1254. Little Trêfgarn was originally annexed by Bishop Iorwerth to the precentorship in the cathedral church of St.David's, on the foundation of that dignity, but was subsequently resumed by Bishop Gower, and an annual stipend of twenty marks allowed in its stead: it does not appear at what time it was reappropriated, but it is now held on lease of the precentor by William Edwardes Tucker, Esq., of Sealy Ham, as representative of the family of Edwardes, of Little Trêfgarn in which it has been vested for upwards of two hundred years. Sealy Ham is an elegant modernized mansion on the bank of a small stream, called the Sealy, and has been in the possession of the same family since the reign of Edward III.: it is now the property and residence of W. E. Tucker, Esq., by marriage of William Edwardes, Esq., of Little Trêfgarn with the heiress of that house. Slate of good quality is found in this parish, and is worked upon a limited scale. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of St.David's, rated in the king's books at £4. 16. 0 1/2., and in the patronage of the Upper Chapter in the Cathedral Church of St. David's. The church, dedicated to St. Dogvael, is a plain building of considerable antiquity, without either tower or spire: the nave is separated from the south aisle by low Norman arches. The sum of £7. 10. per annum is paid to the poor of this parish by Major Harries of Trêvacoon under the will of the late John Edwardes, Esq., of Trêfgarn. Within the limits of the parish are, a cromlech, and other remains of antiquity, some of which, supposed to have been Druidical altars, are at present little more than an indiscriminate heap of stones: there are also slight remains of three ancient encampments, probably of Danish origin, and in a more perfect state than the relics above mentioned; of these, one, near which are three tumuli, is situated at Wolf's Castle, and the two others, within one of which there is a rocking-stone, are within the demesne of Sealy Ham. The annual average expenditure for the support of the poor amounts to £105.

 

Gareth Hicks, 23 Dec 1999