Wales glossary

A religious sect founded in the seventeenth century characterised by a unique form of service of worship which took no set form. Also known as the Society of Friends. One of the most persecuted of sects because they refused to defer to their 'social superiors'.

Courts which tried less important cases than Courts of Great Sessions. Held every three months.

Fifteen days after or before.

A disclaimer of all legal rights and interests.

Originally, certain especially well-qualified justices of the peace whose presence was necessary at a meeting of the quarter sessions, etc. By the eighteenth century all justices were named of the quorum.

Belief in political reform on a democratic basis. In a nineteenth century context usually refers to the reforming wing of the Liberal Party.

Agrarian disturbances in west Wales, 1839–43, featuring attacks on toll-gates led by rioters dressed in women’s clothes (‘Rebecca’). The use of the name may relate to a reference in the Bible to Rebecca and her descendants inheriting the gates of their enemies.

Rightly, correctly.

Catholics who refused to attend Church of England services as required by the Elizabethan Act of Uniformity, 1559.

Known as the Third Reform Act. The previous Reform Act in 1867 had given householders and lodgers in boroughs the vote; the 1884 Act extended this vote to the counties. There were seven ways by which a person could qualify for the vote, but 80 per cent of voters came under the household and occupation franchise.