Dear Bonnie,
I remember your request from 2003 for Maes y Geirchen (and variants!) and wonder if you
had any luck in the Archives of Bangor University where there are 21 metres of deeds and
documents in the Penrhyn Castle papers? My experience of dabbling (only dabbling, I am
afraid!) in research in this period is that properties that were bought up by larger
estates end up having all their deeds and references in that collection.
The sort of tidbits that can be very useful relate to the entitlement of people to call
land their own (often "deeds" or "abstracts" of "title").
This is of more use to the purchasor than the vendor, as the former has more to lose.
Like deeds to a house, the estates often kept deeds going back a long way but they might
not be indexed under farm or estate names - more often before 1700 they were indexed under
mediaeval township name: in Aberdaron, for example, they are Is-sele and Uwch-sele (or
Issely and Uwchsely). These units may be bigger or smaller than the modern parish and do
not necessarily follow the same boundaries. In the case of one township, Bodrydd, it has
given its name to a much smaller modern farm near Aberdaron.
The important dates when properties were transacted (and people are mentioned in deeds)
are marriage, death, and lease or sale.
As you know, there are hardly any wills for Bangor prior to 1600. You have tried in the
National Archives for PCC wills of which there are 8 for Bangor in the period 1539-1656
(and even more for Carnarvonshire)?
I think the list has useful things to learn from your experience, so I hope you will keep
us posted.
Yours,
Ian