Now I think you are over-simplifying. A Bond was a Bond and you broke it at
your peril, the holder of the Bond would state his terms and would have
every right to have the person in bondage charged with a criminal offence if
those terms were broken. As I said in my original note to you a Bond was a
legal document requiring a particular action and could be used for a variety
of purposes, they could also be bequeathed to beneficiaries in a person's
Will, thus passing the benefit of the obligation on to someone else. I
suppose, to put it simply, it could be termed as a LEGAL agreement to an
action in exchange for a service.
Sorry to say I have never heard of the Marrington Collection, if it is in
connection with Montgomeryshire,(or any other part of Wales) I suggest you
try The National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth.
-----Original Message-----
From: Anthony Francis [mailto:afrancis@mail.pacificcoast.net]
Sent: 20 June 2003 19:02
To: POWYS-L(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: RE: [POWYS] Bonding /Boughrood/Backrhyd, Radnorshire.
Hi Vera,
Many thanks, sorry to be so slow, I'm beginning to get it.
I was imagining that these Bonds were sworn before some official, J.P. or
whatever like the Marriage Bond, but they were simply IOU papers given in
exchange for some service or item, which was part of the barter system of
trading before there was ready cash from the corner bank. No sales taxes or
whatever!
A translation of: "Richard Davies of Penyarth BOND to William Pughe of
Nantmeichied yoman, for the sum of £20" is simply: 'Richard Davies of
Penyarth gave a written IOU for £20 to William Pughe of Nantmeichied,
yeoman'. - This was simply home-made paper money.
Your explanation of my second example seems to involve an agreement for
interest payable on an IOU. Translation of "Richard Davies and Owen Owens
of Peniarth, Montgom. are bound to Griffith Thomas of Llanvylling in the
sum of £20 for £10" might mean 'Richard Davies and Owen Owens of Peniarth,
Montgom gave an IOU for £20 to Griffith Thomas of Llanvylling for his
lending them £10'. - a promise on paper for Griffith to get his money back
with 100% interest added.
It seems that this Richard Davies was the financial administrator for his
family's business of making leather goods. He must have had drawers full of
paper IOUs or Bonds as they were called. The job involved a large amount of
trust and honour between the people of the community around Llanfyllin and
Meifod, Montgomeryshire, before the financial services of banks became
readily available and changed this way people had of interacting together
prior to the year 1700.
I suppose there is a long history of banking services and money lending
about which I am very ignorant.
Another question. What is the 'Marrington Collection' and how would they
come by all these papers?
Many thanks again Vera, for sharing your knowledge.
Cheers, Tony
------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Vera Brown" <vera.brown1(a)btopenworld.com>
Subject: RE: [POWYS] Bonding /Boughrood/Backrhyd, Radnorshire.
Date: Tue, 19 May 1998 15:55:18 +0100
X-Mailing-List: <POWYS-L(a)rootsweb.com> archive/latest/10904
Hi Tony
I will try and clarify this for you a little. In the first instance, the
£5.00 per annum would be one man's contribution to the 'pot', rather as we
would contribute to a charity today by agreeing to pay so much a month
towards the upkeep of, say, an African child.
In the case of Bondsman, have you heard the expression 'your word is as
good
as your bond', ie. we have a deal, shake hands on it - in this
there is no
written agreement, but one party agrees verbally to fulfill an agreement -
the more modern equivalent of a written bond. It is where someone provides
a service for another person and expects something in return ie an IOU. A
good example would have been where someone wanted to emigrate to America
but
didn't have the money to pay the fare. Someone already living
there would
agree to pay the fare providing the emigrant then worked for them for a
given period without payment, the emigrant was thus 'bound' for that period
in order to pay off the debt.
In the final case you quote below I would translate it as follows:
Griffiths
has provided a service for the other two (perhaps paid off a debt)
they
must
now pay him back with interest, in whatever manner was agreed, they
are now
'bound' to him. For example, if the agreement was to work for him for a
given period, he, of necessity, may well, in addition, be providing food
and
lodging for them for that period so he would expect much more than
his
initial £10 in return.
Our ancestors may not, on the whole, have been well educated but they
understood the value of their money and in many cases exacted their 'pound
of flesh' for the use of it.
Vera