Hi Jeff and John,
I am of no help, I just wanted to say I enjoyed reading your notes on
famine in Wales. Those stories are great.
Dianne
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Delves" <jeff.delves(a)virgin.net>
To: <WLS-MERIONETHSHIRE-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 11:09 AM
Subject: [MER] Famine in Wales.
Recent very wet weather in the UK has seen newspaper reporters
searching
the archives. Yesterday's 'Telegraph', for example, noted -
"The driest
Augusts of all were in 1742 and 1747, both of which, taking the country as a
whole, had just 13 per cent of the usual amount of rain."
Extremes of weather probably explain the serious food shortages in Wales
as
described in the book "Newyn a Haint yng Nghymru, a phynciau meddygol
eraill" ["Famine and Pestilence in Wales, and other medical topics", by
Glyn
Penrhyn Jones, published 1962 by Llyfrfa'r Methodistiaid Calfinaidd,
Caernarfon.] The first chapter on 'Famine' is especially interesting; there
are also chapters on smallpox, leprosy, typhus, typhoid, TB, and 3
pioneering doctors in America [Thomas Cadwalader, 1708-1779, son of the
Quaker John Cadwalader who emigrated from Merionethshire to Pennsylvania in
1697; John Morgan, 1735-1789; & John Jones, 1729-1791, grandson of Dr Edward
Jones of Bala, & cousin of Thomas Cadwalader - a family tree shows how they
were related.]
How did our ancestors cope with their poor diet? The book refers to
vitamin
deficiency diseases - y llechau [rickets], y sgyrfi [scurvy], & y
maen tostedd (clefyd y garreg) [?]. It notes - 'Bara ceirch, bara haidd a
chanryg, ynghyd a bwydydd meddal fel uwd, bwdran a siot, a'u cyffelyb, oedd
lluniaeth gyffredin y Cymry hyd yn ddiweddar iawn; bwydydd gorlawn o
garboheidreid ac yn ddiffygiol mewn protein a fitaminau' [Oat cakes/bread,
barley bread and ?, together with soft foods such as porridge, ? and ?, and
the like, were the common food of the Welsh until quite recently; foods with
an excess of carbohydrate and deficient in protein and carbohydrate.]
A poor harvest in Anglesey in 1740 resulted in many deaths from famine,
while
others died of typhus or dysentery. In January 1752 in Pwllheli a
starving crowd attempted to take food from a ship loaded with barley, rye &
potatoes, due to sail to Barmouth.
"Yn 1815 cerddodd nifer o chwarelwyr Ffestiniog i lawr i Dremadog lle
gwyddent
fod blawd dan glo mewn ystorfa; 'ar ol cyrraedd Cob Madog
trefnasant eu hunain yn orymdaith fel milwyr, bob yn bedwar, a chryn bellder
rhyngddynt, nes edrychent yn fyddin lled fawr. Erbyn cyrhaedd Tremadoc yr
oedd pawb yno wedi dychryn, a rhoddwyd yr agoriadau iddynt gael y blawd.
Rhanasant ef yn gyfartal rhwng yr holl ddynion, sef deg pwys ar hugain i bob
un. Dychwelasant trwy Lanfrothen a Bwlch Drws Elen yn llawen, a phawb a'i
gydaid blawd ar ei gefn'." [An extract from the book, taken from 'Hanes
Plwyf Ffestiniog', 1882, by G J Williams. "In 1815 a number of Ffestiniog
quarry workers walked down to Tremadog, where they knew that there was flour
in a locked warehouse; 'after reaching Cob Madog they arranged themselves in
a procession like soldiers, in four ranks, close together, so that they
looked like quite a large army. By the time they reached Tremadoc everyone
there was frightened, and the !
keys were given to them to get the flour. It was shared equally
between
all the men, ie 30 pounds each. They returned in good cheer through
Llanfrothen and Bwlch Drws Elen, each with his ? of flour on his back'."]
I have been unable translate some of the words in the book by Glyn Penrhyn
Jones -
shown as '?' above - can anyone help? Other words that I've been
unable to translate include 'cloron' and 'llymru'.
Jeff Delves
Llandrillo
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