Gentry families established by younger sons.

Younger sons of gentry families.

Regarded as the last King of the Britons.

See Methodism.

An outstanding antiquary whose Britannia is an excellent description of the places he visited and is an invaluable source for the early modern historian.

Liberal MP from 1868. Prime Minister 1905–8. Gave self-government to the colonies in South Africa.

On Pendine Sands near Carmarthen, he set a new world land-speed record on 25 September 1924 by reaching 146m.p.h. in his Sunbeam car, ‘Bluebird’.

An administrative division in medieval Wales based on a notional ‘hundred townships’.

Head or top — chief castle of a lordship.

Cardiff City football club has reached the FA Cup Final three times: in 1925 they lost 1:0 to Sheffield United; in 1927 they beat Arsenal 1:0, becoming the first club to take the FA Cup out of England; and in 2008 they lost 1:0 to Portsmouth.

People who came from the former county of Cardiganshire.

A unit of land, usually 120 acres.

A set of questions and answers on the principal points of the Christian faith, printed as part of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, with many later versions by Dissenters and others.

Term exclusively used in the eighteenth century of the adherents of the Roman Catholic church; otherwise referred to as papists.

A community police officer, the sergeant of the peace, as opposed to the rhingyll, who was an officer of the court.

The UK census is an enumeration of the population conducted every ten years since 1801. The first four censuses involved only a count of the number of people residing in each household; but from 1841 onwards the amount of detail required has increased, to include age, gender, marital status, occupation, place of origin, etc. Censuses are therefore useful sources of historical information, but because of the personal data involved cannot be consulted for 100 years. The most recent census available for public examination is therefore that of 1901.

Representative body of the Welsh local authorities to inspect and examine intermediate secondary schools in Wales.

Radical Liberal MP from 1876. Led the Liberal Unionist alliance with the Conservatives in opposition to Irish Home Rule. Colonial Secretary 1895–1903 at the time of the Boer War.

An issuing house and repository for government legal documents.

An important court which developed in England in the fifteenth century. It could make law. It dealt with land ownership and contract cases.

Small chapels, set up from medieval times by individual endowments, mainly for the purpose of saying Mass for the dead.

The canons of a cathedral acting as a management committee.

(1755–1814) Leading Welsh Methodist of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, especially famous for organising Sunday schools.

A mainly working–class movement aimed at extending the vote and reforming Parliament. Worked for the People's Charter (hence the name) after 1838, demanding universal suffrage, annual Parliaments, secret ballot, payment of members of Parliament, equal electoral districts and the abolition of the property qualification for MPs. Prominent in the years 1837-48.

See Newport Rising.

Home Secretary 1910–11. Holder of major government offices at intervals 1908–29. Prime Minister 1940–5, 1951–5.

Taxes which went towards the upkeep of the established Church, therefore incensing Nonconformist Wales. Attempts at abolition were channelled into Parliament. There were unsuccessful abolition bills in 1837, 1861 and 1867.

Site of the death of Llywelyn the Last, Prince of Wales, on 11 December 1282.

System of elementary education founded by Griffith Jones (1683–1761), rector of Llanddowror, Carmarthenshire (Dyfed).

The war between King Charles I and Parliament, 1642–8.  In fact, there were two periods of civil war – the First Civil War, 1642–7, and the Second Civil War, 1648.

Lands belonging to groups of related individuals in the kindred system.

The fourth of that name in the de Clare dynasty, 1243–95. Known as ‘the Red Earl’. Sided in turn with the two Llywelyns and with the English king. Marcher lord of Glamorgan and one of the most powerful men in Wales.

Lumps of coal and earth stuck together.

Those Liberals who supported the coalition government of Liberals and Conservatives under Lloyd George after the 1918 election.

A skilled job in the coalmining industry.

A term often applied to that co-operative activity, for example in wartime, which draws the resources of virtually all classes and groups in the nation into collective or co-operative action.

Early name for trade unions.

People appointed by the Government to conduct Parliamentary investigation, e.g. the Poor Law Commission in 1832.

A division of a cantref/cantred: the optimum administrative unit in medieval Wales. In Welsh law a commote was an area which contained fifty small townships or villages.

Also known as a truck shop, i.e. shops run by employing companies, for example, ironworks, where workers could redeem the tokens in which they had been paid. This system was open to abuse by the owners.

Castles went through various stages of development from simple ‘motte and bailey’ constructions to the vast stone edifices constructed in Wales during the thirteenth century. The concentric plan in the great Welsh castles involved the principle of successive lines of defence so that each ‘ward’ or section of the castle was placed wholly within another. The outermost defence was the curtain wall, surrounding the whole castle, studded with protective towers. The entrance to the castle was protected by moat, ditch, drawbridge and portcullis. The portcullis was operated within a massive gatehouse, which was flanked by great stone towers and could house troops.

Christian Nonconformist denomination particularly characterised by its democratic government.

See Independents.

A form of manorial tenure.

See Anti-Corn Law League.

Administrative and judicial body created in 1471 and given statutory existence by the Act of Union, Second (1543). From 1473 it was based at Ludlow Castle. See March, The.

Commonly used collective term for the magistrates or justices of the peace for a county.

The 1918 election in which approved candidates from both Liberal and Conservative parties were given a letter of endorsement — the coupon.

Relates to the ‘sport’ of hare coursing.

The most important court in England and Wales. Roughly, the Privy Council sitting as a court.

Courts of law established by the Act of Union, First (1536); gave twelve of the Welsh counties a distinctive system of justice.

Town in north Wales, home of Lloyd George.

The most cherished relic of independent Wales, the piece of the True Cross removed by Edward I after conquest.

Prehistoric stone monuments (now termed megaliths), in the eighteenth century believed to have been built by the Druids.

(1599–1658) General of the New Model Army in the Civil War and subsequently Lord Protector of England.

Henry VIII’s second great chief minister. The first was Thomas Wolsey.

See Bond hamlets.

Anthracite coal dust or small coal.

The administrative and clerical staff of a medieval state, so called because they were clergy, like the administrative staff of the papacy.

The outermost defence of the castle. See Concentric.

The land adjoining a burgage tenement.

Leases by which land was held. Originally these were agreed between lord and tenant, but in time became customary.

Lists of Customs of the manor.

Cleaning an area of the floor in preparation for getting at the coal seam.

One of the four great ironworks of Merthyr Tydfil, along with Dowlais, Penydarren and Plymouth. Established in the 1760s, its most famous (or infamous) owners were the Crawshay dynasty of ironmasters.

Division of land between male heirs.

Periodical or magazine.

Singing festival.

The Welsh Language Society. Founded in 1962, under the inspiration of Lewis, Saunders’ radio lecture Tynged yr Iaith (‘The Fate of the Language’), to promote the status of the Welsh language.

See Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion.

The practice of mutual help in the community. Originated in need for co-operative labour in the countryside. Had been corrupted to financial exactions by Marcher lords.

Magazines in Welsh for adults and children founded and edited by O. M. Edwards.

Founded 1886 to promote self-government for Wales. Supporters included Ellis, Tom, Lloyd George and Thomas, D. A. A Welsh national movement for Welsh independence.