OF
MERTHYR TYDFIL
BY
CHARLES WILKINS, F.G.S.,
Author of ÒWales, Pat and PresentÓ,
Literature of WalesÓ, History of the Coal TradeÓ, History of the Iron, Steel
and Tinplate Trades,Ó Etc.
MERTHYR TYDFIL:
JOSEPH WILLIAMS AND SONS, PRINTERS AND
PUBLISHERS
ÒTYSTÓ AND ÒCENAD HEDDÓ OFFICES
1908
Ed. Chapter 17
excerpted from this source gives a non-technical history of the development of
the Dowlais Iron Works, emphasizing the contributions of the owners – the
Guests. JMcV, April 2008
CHAPTER 17
DOWLAIS AND THE GUEST FAMILY.
ABOUT
the middle of the 18th century, we have plain indications from parish documents
that the Iron Era had begun. The old rate books show that amongst the Joneses,
Wil1liamses, and Thomases, the aborigines of the valley, interlopers had made
their appearance, and that in some cases even the native inhabitants were
speculating a little in iron-making.
As
we have stated, the earliest lease given was in 1696; but after more or less
desultory efforts, we hear of no marked practical efforts until the year 1748,
when the great mineral district was leased by the Dowager Lady Windsor to Mr.
Thomas Morgan, of Machen Place, one of the direct line of the present Tredegar
family. The lease was for a term of ninety-nine years, subject to an annual
payment of twenty-six pounds sterling! and embraced an area of 2,000 acres of mineral property,
extending from the northern part of Dowlais to the centre of the widely spread
parish of Gelligaer. It was free from any restriction as to sub-letting and
royalty, and empowered the lessee to work coal, iron-.ore, limestone,
sand-stone, and fire clay for the period named over the whole estate, which at
that period, with one small exception, was in the ownership of Lady Windsor.
This exception was a portion known then, and now, as Penydarren.
For
a few years Morgan indulged his taste in sporting and hunting, and, having
either cleared the district or become tired of the amusement, he disposed of
the lease to David John, of Gwernllwyn Isha, ancestor of Davis, of the Cwm; and
John's representatives received an annual rent until the termination, in 1850
or '51. The lease was assigned by John to the Rev. Thomas Lewis, Llanislian,
Monmouthshire, who paid £26 per annum. Two or three years passed, and one of
the Lewises, of the Van, a descendant of the old Troedyrhiw iron-master, and a
representative of Ivor Bach, made an application to the Bute family for a
transfer of the abandoned lease, with its immunities and privileges, as granted
to Mr. Morgan. This was conceded, with one important proviso-that, instead of
the £26,
it should thenceforth be £28. From the date of the lease, Mr. Lewis tried a
little iron-making at Dowlas in connection with the small iron works he had
near Caerphilly; and among the old people of a century ago at Dowlais there
lingered traditions of great enterprises on the part of Lewis - of massive iron
material for furnaces brought over the hills by long trains of mules, and of
mighty shouts and exclamations at the difficulty of transport, of course given
in voluminous aud undefiled Welsh.
Such
was the condition of things when the pioneer of the Guest family made his
appearance upon the scene. Who and what was he ? The question put to Mr. C. R,
Guest, barrister, Westminster, elicited the following : --John Guest came from
the White House, Broseley. He was the grandfather of Mrs. Bathurst and of Canon
Thorne. He was the younger brother of Thomas Guest, and he married Penelope
Furmstone, nee Guest; great-grandfather, Ralph Guest. My great
great-grandfather John married Penelope Easthope. He died at Broseley 27th
Nov., 1777. Alexander left several daughters. He was buried at Madeley. Of this
three sisters, one married John Hartshorne, and became grandmother of the Rev.
C. Hartshorne and Frances, who married Benjamin Wright, father of Peter Wright,
who was the father of the second wife of Timothy Yate, Esq., agent to Lord
Craven, and cousin to the Rev. Geo. Yate. Mr. C. E. Guest adds: " I cannot
find any Wills or any means of identifying the parents of John, husband of
Penelope Easthope, and I am afraid I never shall. They were evidently in a
respectable position of life. I am quite certain that the pedigree has never
been properly gone into, as I have evidence that the Guests married into county
families, and were people of some standing. Our own enquiries, undertaken forty
years ago, elicited the fact that about 176o John Guest, a freeholder lived at
Broseley. He was a middle-aged man, and his wife's name was Wilmot. He had
several children, and over the porch of his dwelling there was a large initial
G. This was the old homestead of the Guests, a family located in Broseley for
upwards of two hundred years."
When
Sir John Guest, in the heyday of his fame, sought to learn the ancestry of the
Guests, he found that the name was one of the oldest institutions of the
parish. It was a good old Saxon family, and there generation had succeeded
generation, like the elms of the hedgerows and the beech of the woodland. Our
Guest flourished at the time when dabbling in iron-making became common in iron
districts. There are remains to this day at Broseley of an old furnace known as
Guest's, where he attempted, with what success we know not, to make iron. This
fact becoming known to Lewis, of Dowlais, led to his joining him in his Welsh
speculation; and about the year 1760 he started for Wales. The road was rugged,
mountainous; difficulties and dangers were to be apprehended; but his plain
habits and strong constitution enabled him to treat these trifles as of little
account. He had a companion in his travels, and this companion was an old
faithful servant of the family, named Ben, who rode on a grey mare; and when
they set out to seek their fortunes, the master rode and the man walked behind.
But there was not the distance then that now exists between master and man, and
so it fell out that honest Guest could not ride in comfort while his old friend
and servant trudged in the mire; so Ben was persuaded, very much against his
wish, to mount the grey mare behind his master; and in this homely fashion,
sometimes walking, and occasionally resting, for the sake of the poor animal,
whom they treated with care and consideration, they jogged along in the
direction of the distant, the unknown land of Wales. It was in this homely
guise that they were seen in the falling shades of an autumnal evening to enter
the obscure hamlet of Merthyr, by the Twynyrodyn Road; and being directed by a
villager, the travellers stopped at length opposite the cosy-looking and
inviting hostelry now known as the Three Salmons. Such was the entry on the
field of the future of our Guest; the energetic worker out of his own fortunes,
the ancestor of one who in our day amassed immense wealth, and linked his name
in honourable association with the old nobility of the empire.
Guest
built himself a house by the side of the Morlais, and took the furnace of Lewis
into his special keeping; and soon, it would appear, there he lived, there he
worked, quietly moulding his fortunes.
He
was a plain, homely man. Mrs. Williams, of Penyrheolgerrig, the mother of Mr.
Morgan Williams, remembered him well. She was born at Pant Coed Ivor, where her
father, Mr. Nicholas, a descendant of Sir David Gain, pursued the trade of a
smith. It was by their house that the old post-woman came once a week from
Brecon to Merthyr with letters, in those quaint old days of pre-postal, rail,
or telegraph times ; and as the old lady, mounted on a pony, was desirous of
getting to the village with as little labour as possible, she left Mr. Guest's
letters and papers in the care of Nicholas, to be sent on to their destination
by his little girl. The post-woman brought only two newspapers in her bag
weekly. One of these was for Mr. Guest, and the other for a respectable yeoman
in Merthyr. This paper was regularly taken by Mrs. Williams, when a girl, to
the proprietor of the Dowlais Furnace ; and for this act she received a weekly
present of one penny, and on Christmas days sixpence. She invariably found Mr.
Guest seated on a large stone opposite his furnace, which was very little
bigger than a common limekiln; and when she came in sight, for he knew his
messenger at a distance, he would hasten to take his newspaper, and reseat
himself on the big stone, to read it with great attention. That solitary
newspaper, which had travelled so far, and at length had only reached him by
the little travelled route of the Brecon hills, was the Englishman's solitary
link with the world he had left. In the Welsh dingle, amidst a strange people,
he was as far from home and England as any emigrant of the present day is in
Canada or the West of America; but the newspaper came, a bright pleasant
messenger, the wandering friend who maintained the connection open between him
and his country, and fanned his interest in those stirring times and strong
minds which lent a marked distinction to that epoch in our history. For Pitt,
like a caged lion, was then growling defiance in his retreat; the American
Revolution had cast its forerunning shadows; and throughout England Wilkes, and
liberty had become the signal for disturbance and riot. Guest was, of course,
interested in these things; and so when the Cambridge Intelligencer, edited by that renowned and sometime
imprisoned Radical, Flowers, was received, no wonder that the absorbing
attractions of the one small furnace faded for the time, and mentally he was
far away from the hollow of Gellifaelog and the strange voices of Welshmen, in
his own home at Broseley
This
is another of our pleasant retrospects, and one that lures the thoughtful mind
to reflect awhile ere taking up the chain of events and wandering on. Our
chronicle, Mrs. Williams, a lady of superior intelligence and most excellent
qualities, liked nothing better than to refer to these and similar records of her
youth. She described Mr. Guest as a tall, finely-built man, with eccentric
habits, but much loved by his workmen. He had but few men; and as he applied
himself to the study of the language with his usual energy of application, he
was soon able to converse with them in their own tongue. The old rate. books
give us a hint that assures us that he was " reverenced, as old Welshmen
say; for, while the clerk entered wealthy yeomen as John Thomas or William
Morgan, our iron-master is entered first on the list, and as Mr. John Guest.
This
is no fanciful distinction. Last century the people of Aberdare were in the
habit of recording that they had only three "misters " in the parish.
One of these was Mr. Jones, of the Johns' family, of Vaynor, who lived on the
estate afterwards held by Mr. Bruce; another was the curate; and the other
Rees, of the Werfa. So it was an uncommon height of dignity for Guest to attain
when he, an unknown man, was honoured with the prefix of "Mr."
Mr.
Guest's labours were at first attended with considerable difficulty. Success
dawned but slowly. He found that Mr. Lewis, with whom Mr. Thompson, father of
Alderman Thompson, was in partnership, had tried various methods; so he had the
benefit of his forerunners' experience, with only a moiety of their
misfortunes. Amongst other means, Mr. Lewis was the first in Wales to attempt
the manufacture of iron by means of pit coal; and an immense outlay was
incurred to bring up the required new cylinder from Cardiff to Dowlais. This
was achieved by a small army of men and twenty-four oxen over the mountain to
Waun, and thence to the works in the track of the Roman road; but, on trial,
the principle was attended with only partial success, and the weekly yield
under Lewis did not exceed eighteen tons - another instance of the sluggish
growth of great benefits, for Dudley had begun iron-making with pit coal in
1619!
Almost
simultaneously with the arrival of Guest came a Mr. Wilkinson, the father of
the late eminent iron-master of that name. This gentleman also came from
Broseley, so the news of the venture in Wales was beginning to spread.
Wilkinson built a furnace in Dowlais, the ruins of which can still be seen
behind the old Vulcan steps. At a considerable distance from this there was a
water-wheel, which acted as the motive power to a large bellows, supplying the
furnace with blast. This blast was in turn conveyed through a clay pipe, so
long and frail that it was no wonder the whole scheme fell to pieces; and all
Mr. Wilkinson did was to blast his own fortune, and return to Broseley a
disappointed man. John Guest must have smiled at this, though he was not one of
those little-minded men who love monopoly and view with envy the appearance of
a competitor. So far from this being the case, as soon as he saw reasonable
hopes of success, he was the first to invite some of his old Broseley friends
to come and join him; for he was a man of a large circle of friends, and a
member of a very large family. As an interesting relic, we give a list of his
brothers and sisters, the children of his father, Thomas Guest, of Broseley:
John
Guest, the Dowlais iron-master-born August 3xst, 172.1 ; died at Dowlais.
Elizabeth (Mrs. Onions)-born Feb. 27th, 1723; died at Dowlais, April 22nd,
1794. Sarah -born Oct. 27th, 1725.
Mary - born Sept. 3rd, 1727. Thomas-born Jan. 21, 1729; died at Dowlais. Anne
(Mrs. Corser)born Jan- 5th,,1731.
Gertrude (Mrs. Evans)-born Feb-7th, 1733; died at Worcester. William
borrn April 25th, 1736; died at Broseley. Robert-born March 3oth, 1738; died at
Dowlais. Jane born April 29th, 1740.
Our
iron-master was the ablest of the family. Nature had been kind to him, Well
formed, strongly built, he was not one of those nonentities whom we often
see-milliner men, who lack the sterling manhood that has given England its
commercial successes, its victories of peace, and its long line of martial
sons. We find that out of the whole family John alone rose to distinction.
Thomas, his brother, was engaged in the works for many years, and died at
Dowlais. He had two sons, Charles and George, both of whom returned to
Broseley. Charles worked as a moulder, and George followed a similar calling
for a little while at Dowlais. George had two sons, also named Charles and George,
and a daughter. George became a clerk in the forge office (now the railway
station), and Charles a moulder. Robert, a younger brother of John Guest, was
employed in some inferior capacity in the Dowlais Works. He had three sons,
Cornelius, Thomas, and William, and several daughters. Cornelius became a
master refiner, and resided in Long Row. He also erected a number of houses in
Horse Street. Thomas, his oldest son, married the sister of Mr. John Uvans. He
subsequently left Dowlais for the Victoria Works. William removed to Broseley.
He had two daughters, one of whom died early; the other became the wife of an
agent connected with Penydarren Works. It would appear to have been a family
characteristic that in one capacity or another the whole of the family devoted
themselves to the birth, so to state, the growth, and the fortunes of Dowlais.
Mr.
John Guest continued plodding onward at Dowlais, selling his coal and working
the solitary furnace. His yield of iron increased from 500 tons annually to
1,500, but never exceeded this. His methods of getting mine, and even coal,
were primitive in the extreme. The mountain streams would be damned up to a
considerable height at such places as Twyncarno, and then suddenly cleared
away, scouring out the mine from the sides, which, by its great weight, would
sink to the bottom of the brook or stream, and be collected afterwards. This
process was called scouring, and it was adopted at Cyfarthfa as well as at
Dowlas. Near Cyfarthfa there is a place still known as Cwm Scaura, where the
plan was periodically carried out. In connection with a Mr. Wilkinson, Guest
leased a tract of land at Plymouth, and started a furnace there. (See Chapter
on Plymouth Works.)
He
was a good master, and, amongst other benefits and privileges, gave his men a
dinner every year on the Waun Mountain ; but they indulged so excessively in
drinking, as well As eating, that is was at length abandoned. His growing
infirmity, too, had something to do with this, for just when Penydarren Works
were opened, and the Hornfrays were beginning to exhibit their skill and
energy, Mr. Guest drooped and died. The date of his death is the 25th November,
1785, and his remains lie in the chancel of our Parish Church. During the
latter years of his life his son, Thomas, relieved him from many of the arduous
details of management; and, after his father's death, he at once stepped into
his place. We learn, from the course of things that followed, that Lewis, of
Pentyrch, had retained an interest in Dowlais Furnace; for, in 1785, Thomas
Guest was publicly announced as taking the direction of affairs, and also
receiving his appointment as one of the firm, which, froin that time, became
known as the Dowlais Iron Company. The company consisted of Guest, Lewis, and
Mr. Tait. Guest held 2-16ths; Tait, 8-16ths; and Lewis, 6-16ths. Tait had been
a traveller for the firm, and it was currently reported had gained his
promotion by diplomacy. The statement is, that in his capacity of traveller he
had succeeded in getting a large number of orders, and these and his influence,
he submitted, entitled him to be one of the company. In the event of the
partners refusing, a transfer to Mr. Bacon, of Cyfarthfa, was imminent. We
cannot endorse this statement, but believe that Tait purchased Thompson's
share. Thompson afterwards had works at Tintern. Mr. Lewis resided at Pentyrch,
where he also had a furnace, and was the representative in Parliament for
Cardiff ; subsequently he sat for Maidstone; and at his death his interest in
the works fell into the hands of his two nephews. From thence until the
termination of the lease, in 1848, the family of the Lewises held their share
in the works.
Thomas
Guest, in taking the control of the works, displayed eminent capacity for the
post, and proved that the keen worldly prudence necessary in dealing with a
large number of men, and in carrying out, comparatively, very large
transactions, was compatible with a devotional mind. He was a thorough man of
business and a thorough Christian, ready at any moment to give practical
evidence of his belief, not by lip unction, but by honest aid, either of hand
or pocket. As the works increased, and the people thronged more on that bleak
hill-side, building houses with a single aim to keep from the keen north wind,
and having no idea of natural drainage, or metalling, or even of sewers, Mr.
Guest noticed many a promising man, and gave him assistance in struggling with
the world. One of these was the father of that eminent Merthyr man, the Rev.
Daniel Davies, D.D. In our Chapter on Penydarren we show that Mr. Guest was
associated with the English Wesleyans. He not only gave £50 towards the
building, but took an active part in the details, going to Bristol, for
instance, to see the pillars turned for supporting the gallery. As a local
preacher, also, he occasionally officiated, not only here, but in the Aberdare
Valley, taking his two boys, Thomas and the late Sir John, with him on his
journey; and every Sunday morning Thomas and his sons, the late baronet and his
brother Thomas, attended the early prayer meeting at five o'clock; and twice a
day the boys punctually appeared at the Sunday School. He overlooked with rare
ability the Works that were growing under his hands, and showed a studious
interest in the welfare of the people he had brought together. In 1790 the
Dowlais Works were assessed to the poor
at £2,000 only; yet they were on a large scale for the time.
In
the year 1795 steam power was first introduced to the, district, and this was
at Dowlais. The engine was one of Watt and Boulton's. In 1797 a company shop
was opened, for the first time, and proved a great convenience to the workmen.
In 1804 a corps, called the Dowlais Marksmen, was formed, under the auspices,
but not the captaincy, of Mr. Guest. The period was one of considerable
depression in the iron trade, owing to the war which was then raging, and the
startling rumours of the approaching French invasion; for the people at Dowlais
seemed to think that Napoleon had his eye fixed on their district in particular,
and that the Government had decided on blowing up the blast furnaces, rather
than they should fall into the hands of the enemy! In 1807, after a fife of
energy and usefulness, Mr. Thomas Guest died, on the 28th of February, and was
buried in St. Tydfil's Church. The disposition of the Works at his death was as
follows: --- Mr. J. J. Guest, 9-16ths; Thomas Revel Guest, 1-16th; Mr. Lewis,
6-16ths; Mr. Tait retiring. Dowlais Works; under Mr. Thomas Guest's management,
had increased remarkably. By the beginning of 1800 it had three furnaces at
work, and the annual product was about 3,000 tons. Dowlais Forge had been
erected, and achieved wonders; and though, according to Malkin, the traveller,
the Works were secondary to Penydarren, yet great strides were being made that
would soon bring them to an equal footing. By the kindness of Mr. Kelly, of
Pontypool, we learn that the man who first worked as a roller at the forge in
1860 was living, and was ninety years of age. His name was Hugh John, a native
of Llantrisant. He was a Penydarren workman, but " borrowed by Mr. Guest
until a roller could be had." The first bar of finished iron at Dowlais
was three inches by a half in size. The first heater's name was Corns, an old
Merthyr family; the cashier's name was Edmonds; Preece was gaffer over the
mill; Thomas Lees over the puddlers; and John and Richard Brown were the master
mechanics. Most of these names are now no longer represented amongst us; but
the son of Richard Brown was no other than James Brown, late Mayor of Newport;
and another, named Thomas, was well known as the late owner of Blaina and
Cwmcelyn, and partner in the works of Ebbw Vale, which he bought for Darby
Brothers from the old owners, Harford and Co.
Such,
then, was the condition of Dowlais when the father of Sir John Guest died. He
was a worthy and a remarkable man. With an intellect more solid than brilliant,
he always exhibited the gravity and strong religious convictions which
characterised the brethren in the early epoch of Wesleyanism. We might with
proopriety say with Aristides, "To be, and not to seem, was this man's
maxim." Honest, generous, unaffected, with no courtly etiquette or
fastidious manners, he seems to us a relic, which time had spared, of that
stern Cromwellian age, when Englishmen made themselves respected in every part
of the world. His son, Sir John, though he had always a kindly bearing to the
class his father loved, showed less of sectarian influences than his brother
Thomas, who, though rather wild in youth, became, like his father, a local
preacher, and to the end of his life exhibited a character uniformly pious and
amiable qualities which endeared him to all with whom he came in contact. He
troubled himself little about iron or iron-making, took more pleasure in giving
than in getting, and sagely thought that there was something else worth living
for besides amassing wealth ; though it is evident that a man of his gentle and
thoughtful character was not the one to develope the wealth of a mineral
district, or to bring a swarm of contented inhabitants where not long before
there was a solitude. He was in the habit, every year, of dividing £300 between
three of the religious institutions of his neighbourhood. On one occasion, a
Wesleyan, of Dowlais, solicited a donation, and his reply was, " Get as
much as you can, and I will add an equal share." Some thought him too
rigid. By the servants at Dowlais House his appearance was the signal for a
discontinuance of all frivolity. Once a servants' ball was on the eve of taking
place; Thomas arrived, and, to their great disgust, all the preparations were
put aside. He died when on a mission of friendship and benevolence; for,
hearing that an old friend of his in Ireland had become reduced in
circumstances, he hastened thither, and, alas ! fell a victim to fever.
The
one-sixteenth share he held in the Dowlais Works he left to his nephew, Mr.
Hutchins, late M.P. for Poole, who sold it to Sir John, and retired before the
lease expired.
Sir
Josiah John Guest, Bart., was born on the 2nd of February, 1785, nine months
before the death of his grandfather, the first Guest, whom he so much resembled
in sturdy independence of thought and energy of action. His mother, whose
maiden name was Phillips, died when he was very young, and his early years severe
thus passed in the care of one of those homely old nurses who rub through life
in happy ignorance, and equal contempt, of its elevations and luxuries. What
her right name was few of the place knew. She was commonly known as "Mari
Aberteifi," having come from the wilds of Cardigan to this part when the
iron age attracted from near and afar. She lived at Gellifaelog, and occupied
her time partly in feeding turkeys, and in part nursing young Guest. Once a
year she drove a flock of her choice fat birds before her to Bristol, and came
back to her charge with her knowledge of the world expanded, and her purse
heavier. In after years, when the nurse had become a very old woman, and young
Guest had attained wealth, dignity, and honours, she would occasionally clamber
up the dingle and meet him as he rode up to Dowlais House, and to her jocular
advice, not to be proud or to forget his old friends, he would respond with
kind words and weighty gifts. We very much fear that Mary, like many of her
class, imbued her charge with superstitious notions, for Master Guest was a
timid boy, and did not care to go out after dark. Where the Central. Schools
now are, a dense plantation grew in his day, with an uncanny reputation about
it. A white shade had been seen to roam about, chains heard to rattle, balls of
fire seen, and men, much less little boys, scrupulously avoided the spot after
nightfall. Sceptics say that the work horses were turned into the adjoining
fields at night with their harness on, and that amongst these was a young and
restless animal, rather grey in colour, which is concluded to have been the
spirit that terrified the men and boys. But young Guest grew out of his
timidity. In his youthful years he always accompanied his brother and father to
the Wesleyan Chapel, Merthyr; was a constant attendant at the Sunday School
there, and also went with the revered gentleman on his periodical journeys to
Aberdare, where Mr. Guest, senior, preached, and his son sat amongst the
pleased listeners. But he was not a studious or melancholy lad-one of those
who, lacking vigorous stamina, naturally fall aside out of the road of life,
and become the scholar or the preacher. He liked few things better than a good
hearty game, and many a workman was seduced from his heavy labours, in past
time, to play with him. Possibly his great flow of animal spirits might have
led him into mishap, but for his uncle Tait, who was the actual soul of the
growing iron establishment. Mr. Tait lived at Cardiff, and periodically
journeyed to Merthyr; but the manager was Mr. John Evans, senior; and this
gentleman had also the duty of instructing Mr. Tait's nephew in the management.
The lad's uncle, too, in a variety of ways, guided his steps in a thoroughly
excellent and practical track. As an encouragement, he received £50 a year long
before his father's death, and when that sad event took place, in 1807, though
he was only twenty-two, he had become so conversant with the details of the
Works, that he was at once appointed manager, in connection with a Mr.
Kirkwood, another nephew of Tait's. This nephew rode to Cardiff every Saturday,
and reported progress to his uncle, returning on the Monday. In 1813 this young
man was taken suddenly ill and died, and the whole management at once became
vested in Mr. Guest, who, at the time, held one-sixteenth share in the Works.
In 1815 Mr. Tait died, and, with the exception of several legacies, left all
that he had to his nephew, including eight-sixteenths shares in the Dowlais
Works. It is related that when Mr. Tait was on his death-bed, the question of
the future management of Dowlais became the subject of conversation, when Guest
honestly admitted that the undertaking was too mighty, and suggested that he
might look out for a fresh field, and try and open other paths to fortune and
honour. Happily for Dowlais he decided otherwise, and, armed with his good
father's admonitions, his uncle's wise and more worldly counsel, and his own
practical knowledge, he entered on his great task.
In
1815 the number of furnaces at Dowlais had increased to five, making yearly
15,600 tons of iron, at a weekly average of little more than fifty tons each.
In 1817 Mr. Guest married Miss Maria Rankin, a lady of Irish family, who had
emigrated from Ireland during the Rebellion of 1798. She was well connected,
and allied with families who hold important positions to this day. At this
period, in addition to the house then occupied by Mr. Guest, and now used for
offices, he held Troedyrhiw Farm, and frequently resided there until Dowlais
House was built. One pleasing anecdote is related of his wife. She and her
husband were riding to church one Sunday morning on horseback, when, without a
word being said, she abruptly wheeled the horse round, and rode back in the
direction of home. He quickly overtook her, and enquired the motive for so
strange a course. "Josiah," she replied, "I cannot go to church
while so many of your own workmen are breaking the Sabbath." This incident
led to the discontinuance of all employment, but that which was absolutely
necessary. Mrs. Guest's career was brief, but happy. We see for a moment the
early married life, with its sunshine, and its genial, unstemmed flow of
happiness; and then the storm falls. Nine months only of wedded life, and this
truly excellent lady, endowed with so many virtues, lay numbered with the dead.
Her death took place on the 14th day of January, 1818, at the early age of
twenty-three. This was a terrible blow. The poetry of life seemed destroyed.
Harshly had the bright anticipations and hopes been shattered; but Mr. Guest
bore it like a philosopher. He plunged with keener zest into trade, and tried
to drown his sorrow in its whirl and turmoil. Thenceforth we find him
assiduously employed in developing the mineral resources of the Dowlais estate.
The field was a fine one. The coal cropped out on the mountain side, and could
be worked at less cost than in any other part of the district. The ores were
good, and the rental insignificant. Never was there a fairer scope for a
persevering, able man; and Mr. Guest soon proved that he was competent to the
work before him. To us, reviewing his life, it seems easy to pen the chronicle
of progress, to note the stages taken by the Dowlais Works, in their advance
from comparative insignificance to their greatest magnitude; but it was
thoroughly exhaustive work, both physically and mentally, for the founder, and
many years had to pass by before the fruits of his labour were visible to the
world. In 1815, £1 promissory notes were issued at Dowlais. Furnaces Nos. 6, 7,
and 8, were built in 1822; No. l0 was erected in 1823, and by that time the
average yield of each furnace was increased to sixty tons, the whole producing
in that year 22,287 tons. In 1823 he opened a bank at Cardiff, managed by a Mr.
Dore, and a branch at Merthyr in the residence of the late T. J. Evans, Esq.,
and issued £1 notes, thriving well in his new capacity of banker, until that
exciting era of commercial disasters, 1825. He saw the storm brooding, and
hurried up to consult his London Agents, Messrs. Roberts and Co., who met his
application for aid with a blank refusal. Instead of gold they wished to give
him advice, which he as decidedly rejected, and, taking his hat, withdrew, and
closed all connection with the firm. By dint of great exertion he gathered
funds, and, returning to Cardiff, was just in time to meet the great run on the
bank. This was manfully met and he had the happiness to know that thousands
were saved from ruin by his foresight. From that date, Messrs. Glyn and Co.
became his London bankers.
In
1825 he entered Parliament for Honiton as a moderate Conservative. Honiton was
then looked upon as a close borough, and it is generally believed that he was
indebted for his seat to a London club, and to the energies of Meyrick and
other Merthyr men, who went to assist him in this, his first contest for
Parliamentary honours. Mr. Guest was subsequently returned for the same place,
but at the election of 1831, he was opposed by Sir G. Warrander, and defeated.
In
March, 1832, Merthyr was enfranchised, and on the 16th of that month a meeting
was convened at the Castle Hotel, Merthyr - William Crawshay, Esq., in the
chair-when Mr. Guest was invited to come forward to represent this newly
constituted borough at the next election. Mr. Guest, in responding to this
request, heartily expressed the natural anxiety he felt to represent his native
town, and the happiness he should derive in the event of their mutual wishes
being carried out.
In
November, 1832, Parliament was dissolved, and then Merthyr became entitled to
exercise the privilege granted; and, on the 6th December following, the
returning officer, Mr. James Stephens, received the first writ ever issued for
this borough. On the following Tuesday, December 11th, Mr. Guest was
unanimously returned as the first representative for the borough of Merthyr
Tydfil to the House of Commons. The first hustings were erected in a field
opposite the Bush Hotel, now the site of a row of handsome and spacious shops;
and it was computed that 20,000 persons were present, when the newly appointed
member was carried, in a handsomely decorated chair, through the principal
streets of the town. In the evening of the same day, one hundred and thirty of
the electors dined with Mr. Guest at the Bush, and great was the enthusiasm
when it was announced that he had placed £500 in the hands of his committee, to
be laid out in the purchase of blankets, clothing, &c., and not, as was
customary in other towns, to be squandered in libations of beer to the people.
On the 11th of December, the same year, he met his constituents at the Vestry,
when he spoke at some length and with excellent effect. He said -"Another
question, on which I wish to say a word or two, is the question of slavery. I
think he is not deserving the name of a man who claims to himself liberty of
action, and does not wish to extend that boon to all mankind. Let us do justice
to all parties. It is a national stain and a national sin, therefore let the
nation suffer for it. I am disposed to consider the claims of all parties. I am
unwilling to claim anything for the slave, which will count on resources that
he cannot command, and I would look to the interests of the slave himself, and
to the interests of the planter also. Gentlemen, I always professed to be against
monopolies of all sorts, and I still adhere to that opinion. I want free trade
of all descriptions. One of the next questions which will come before the House
will be the East India Charter, and my wish would be to throw open the whole of
that trade to all the world. With regard to the question of tithes, let justice
be done to the Clergy, who have a vested interest in their property; let them
have a proper commutation of tithes. No man can doubt, that the present system
of tithes is one, which I will not call shameful, but one under which the
country cannot prosper. With regard to the Church, I believe its best friends -
and I profess to be a good, or, at least, an honest friend to the Church-wish
for a reform, for the sake of that Church itself. When I say reform, I mean,
not spoliation, but reform in the general sense of the word. With regard to the
question of taxes, great stress has been laid, by many strong friends of
liberty, on the impolicy of the taxeson knowledge. 'Knowledge is power,' and I
wish that power to be extended to all ranks of society, id order that they may
become better and happier men. I will do all in my power to procure the
removal, or amelioration, of those taxes which press hard upon industry, and
place them, instead, upon those who are better able to bear them. Speaking of
Free Trade, I am sure that when the United States of America and France think
properly on the subject, they will extend to us the right hand of fellowship,
and we shall have more trade than by acting on the old and exploded system of
bounties and protection."
It
is interesting to note how these advanced thoughts were afterwards worked out
in the life of the nation. In 1831, at the time of the Merthyr Riots (see
Chapter on Riots), Sir John's decision and courage alone saved us from a
terrible scene of bloodshed. He tried argument, then entreaty, and when the
decisive moment arrived, stood between the infuriated mob arid the no less
excited soldiers, and begged, urged, even to the shedding of tears, the
dispersion which happily followed. He now became, in and out of Parliament, a
prominent man, and one thing only seemed needed to complete his happiness. The
world prospered with him. In political parties, amongst literary and scientific
societies, he began to take a position ;but his home life needed a presiding
spirit; one who should direct his energies and abilities into gentler paths,
for the welfare of the great community he was gathering around him. Such a one
he found in Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Bertie, sister of the Earl of Lindsey. In
1833 he married that accomplished lady, and from that time we date the
begriming of his best and happiest projects. We should rather say their
projects, for in all that he was deficient she excelled; and while we credit
him with the honour of founding the greatest iron works in the world, and
giving sustenance and substantial comforts to twenty thousand souls, it is
chiefly to her influence that we must look for all that was done in the way of
moral and mental elevation. And if, after the lapse of many years and the
expenditure of large sum of money, the results were not in harmony with her
hopes and the means employed, we must deem the ruggedness of the material
operated on as the cause. In 1834, their union was blessed by the birth of a
son and heir, and the future Sir Ivor was ushered into the world amidst general
rejoicings.
At
the general election in January, 1835, Mr. Guest was opposed by Mr. Meyrick,
the nominee of Mr. Crawshay; but after an active canvass, that gentleman declined
the hazard of a contest, and withdrew at the eleventh hour. On Thursday, the
9th of January, the former representative was elected amid the enthusiastic
congratulations of an immense concourse of people. In the evening, 350 of the
electors dined together at the Bush and Castle Hotels, the re-appointed member
presiding at the former house, while his brother. Thomas R. Guest, occupied the
same place at the latter; and, as a fitting termination of such rejoicings,
balls were held both at Dowlais and Merthyr, at each of which 400 persons were
present.
On
the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne, in 1835, Mr. Guest was opposed
by John Bruce Pryce, Esq., of Duffryn, an ex-police magistrate of Merthyr, when
the numbers stood as follows :
GUEST
PRVCE.
Dowlais 108
Merthyr 164
67
Aberdare 87
68
309
135
So
that out of 444 voters, MA Guest polled no less than 309. At this election,
while Mr. Guest was proposed for Merthyr, on the one hand, he contested the
County of Glamorgan, on the other, against Lord Adare and C. R. M. Talbot,
Esq., and was only defeated by a small majority. The returns showed Adare,
2,009; Talbot, 1,791 ; Guest, 1,590. In th6 course of a speech delivered on
that occasion, he said, in reply to some taunts thrown out by his opponents I
am also charged with not having supported Sir A. Agnew's Sabbath Bill. That I
am favourable to a religious observance of the Sabbath, I can give a practical
proof during the last seven years, for I am the only person who has stopped working
the furnaces at Aferthyr on a Sunday. I am a friend to the Church, but an enemy
to bigotry and intolerance. I am reminded that I am not of high birth; my
father and grandfather .raised themselves, and I have done the same, by the
labours of my countrymen ; but I have paid them for it; and we have gladdened
the hearts of thousands." How much one is reminded by this of the bluff
independence of William Crawshay.
At
the coronation of Queen Victoria, in July, 1838, that auspicious event was
rendered more illustrious by her Majesty's conferring a distinctive mark on her
subject, Mr. Guest, who, in that year, was elevated to the rank of a baronet.
On
the 21st of July, it was known that Sir Josiah John Guest would arrive in
Merthyr, and it was decided to give him a warm and hearty welcome. Accordingly,
three hundred persons on horseback, and several thousands on foot, awaited the
arrival of the newly created baronet and his lady at Troedyrhiw, where their
congratulations made the welkin ring again and again. By this numerous and
warm-hearted throng he was escorted to Dowlais House, where a congratulatory
address, numerously signed, was presented to the baronet. In reply to that
welcome address, Sir John (for as such he was ever afterwards known) said:- "The
dignity with which her Majesty has been pleased to honour me receives
additional value from the knowledge that you, my constituents and neighbours,
consider it not unmerited. But it is chiefly prized by me as ha-,.-ing been
conferred for my successful efforts to advance the commercial interests of this
great country. It is gratifying for me to think that a large portion of my
public life has been spent in the service of a constituency of whose worth and
independence I have so much reason to be proud, and 'With whom I have been,
from my earliest youth, so naturally connected ; and that I have been enabled
to assist in raising to wealth and importance a town which has fayoured me with
its confidence, and, in so doing, contributed to the comfort and welfare of so
large a portion of my fellow-countrymen, to whose laborious energy aud
perseverance I am mainly indebted for my present position, and it is to me a
source of the highest satisfaction."
Let
us now note his achievements in our little world. Early in his career he had
started day and night schools at Dowlais, and in this respect was the pioneer
of Free Education, which did good service, though insufficient for the growing
population. He also erected a church at Dowlais, at an expense of J3,ooo, which
was consecrated in November, 1827, by Dr. Sumner, the late Bishop of
Winchester; to which Lady Charlotte added the Communion Service; and Sir John
continued to contribute largely towards the support of the clergyman. This
liberality was not confined to Dowlais; he gave £250 towards a new church in
Merthyr. In the conduct of his Works, Sir John enlisted the ablest men. Early
in the thirties, Brunter was the head engineer, and one of his achievements was
a blast engine which embodied all the latest principles, producing steam at
high pressure, and condensing again. He was the first to ventilate pits by the
exhaustion of air. In 1834 he occupied the chair at a large public meeting at
Merthyr, convened for the purpose of starting a town hall and market house; and
the result was, the building of the largest, even if the ugliest, market house
in the Principality. He was the first appointed chairman of the Taff Vale
Railway Company, and held that post in its critical era, when it was a question
if that corporation could weather the storm. At the time he held shares to the
amount of £1oo,ooo. He was a warm advocate for constituting Merthyr a corporate
town, and presided at one of the largest meetings ever held in the place, when
he pledged himself to support the strongly expressed views of the meeting. In
the same year he presided at another meeting, at the Bush Assembly Room, held
in order to devise means for establishing in Merthyr a literary and scientific
institution. At this and other meetings, ninety-one subscribers enrolled their
names, and Sir John, besides a donation of ten guineas placed at the disposal
of the newly formed society a number of specimens which he had accumulated
since his boyhood, consisting of a large and valuable collection of mineral
fossils, appertaining to Italian, German, American, and English series, from
the primitive rocks to the tertiary formation, all of which occupied several
cases. And, later, he founded a savings' bank at Dowlais, for the purpose of
encouraging thrifty habits among the workmen, and made himself responsible for
the repayment of principal as well as interest.
In
1845 he founded a workmen's library, one of the most attractive in the
Principality, through the additions and conveniences introduced by Lady
Charlotte Schreiber and the trustees; and, as if to indicate that no worthy
movement at Merthyr was beneath his regard, he gave an entire suit of clothes
to each of the tea teachers in our National Schools. Year after year the
persevering industry of the iron king had continued to develope the immense
resources of the Dowlais mineral districts, so that, in the year 1842, the
number of. work-people employed numbered 5,000, to whom there was annually paid
£250,000 in wages.
In
1845 these works employed 7,300 men, women, and children, and covered an area
of forty acres, ten acres of which were occupied by the different buildings.
The consumption of coal was 1,200 tons weekly. Eighteen furnaces in blast made
nearly1.600 tons of iron weekly, or an annual produce of 74,880 tons, being an
average of than eighty tons per week for one furnace. The quantity of finished
iron manufactured monthly was equal to1,800 tons of railway bars, and 1,800
tons of bar iron, and one mill alone in that year made 400 tons of rails in one
week. The Dowlais Iron Company were the largest carriers of iron on the Taff
Vale Railway - the average was about 70,000 tons per annum; and in one year
this Company paid the Taff Vale Railway Company £25,641, a sum equal to 8-10ths
of the whole iron carried by this railway company during that period. It was
computed when these Works were in full operation, in 1845, that, if the
colliers employed had worked one continuous scam of coal for twenty-four hours,
half an acre would have been cleared, producing 1,600 tons of coal; and that
the produce of miners and colliers in that year was 80,000 tons of iron-stone
and 140,000 tons of coal. In one year these Works paid to the poor's rate alone
£2,577, being double the sum collected in the whole parish for this same rate
in 1806; and to other rates, £1,618, making a total of £4,195. The basis was,
in coal, at 7-1/2d., and each blast furnace was rated at £363. The eighteen
furnaces were worked by seven powerful steam engines, two of which had twelve
feet blowing cylinders and nine feet stroke. The steam power in operation was
equivalent to 2,000 horses, besides twenty water balances for raising coal to
the surface, and locomotive engines, with 5oo to 6oo horses in constant
employment. The tram-roads below and above ground, if placed in a continuous
straight line, would extend over a length of 2,000 miles. The average wages of
colliers and miners were then 25s. per week ; refiners and puddlers, 35s;
rollem and heaters, 40S.; carpenters and smiths, 21s.
The
population had more than doubled in twenty-four years; and in 1852 it was
computed that no less than 4,500 men, 3,000 women, and 3,000 children were
dependent on these Works for subsistence. And uninterruptedly this great
establishment was carried on, the only fatter being when the old lease expired.
It was then thought that it would not be renewed. The " Company" had
prospered beyond all conception, and the Marquis of Bute was known to be
resolved on getting a rental more adequate to the worth of the estate. The
Dowlais Company paid but £100 a year. From the Penydarren Company alone they
received £10,000! Eventually, the new lease was granted for £30,000, As the
Rev. Canon Jenkins truly observed in Sir John's funeral sermon:---!'The renewal
of the Dowlais lease, considering his state of health and time of life, was an
act that greatly astounded most of his friends. God had blessed him with
abundant means, and he might have retired, in the enjoyment a princely income,
from the immense responsibility of carrying on such large works. Had he done
so, I believe it would have added, not merely to his worldly gain, but greatly
to the comfort, peace, and tranquility of his declining years. But in mercy,
more especially to this populous district, he acted otherwise; and in so doing
he was influenced by strong feelings of compassion and kindness to the
thousands he had collected together from north and south, east and west; and
who looked to him as the only one likely and able to carry on the largest iron
works in the world."
On
the occasion of his last election, as representative of Merthyr in 1852, the
annexed communication was sent by him to the electors. This is inserted as
showing the very kindly feeling existing in the old fashioned day of the
Paternal Ironmasters, prior to the era of limited liability companies, and of
companies generally.
Elected Without opposition. LONDON,
5TH JULY, 1852.
To the Electors of Merthyr-Tydfd,
Aberdare, and Vaynor.
MY DEAR FRIENDS,
I have this moment received your affectionate
Address, assuring me of your intention to return me your Representative at the
approaching Election, and excusing me from undertaking the fatigues of a
personal Canvass, and even from appearing at the Hustings on the Day of
Nomination.
I hasten to return you my most heartfelt
acknowledge. meuts for your kindness and consideration, and to assure you that
no event of my life has more deeply affected me than the receipt of this
Testimonial of your feelings towards me.
I cannot sufficiently thank you for your
expressions of personal regard, and for all the kind wishes you have so
feelingly addressed to me ; but I trust; with restored health, to have the
opportunity of proving to you that this mark of the confidence you repose in
me, has made an impression on my heart never to be effaced.
I
am,
Your
grateful and obliged Friend,
(Signed)
J. JOHN GUEST
Old
inhabitants never forgot that at one contested election Lady Charlotte appeared
upon the hustings, and spoke with considerable power, and throughout was much
applauded.
For
some time prior to the year 1852, Sir John had been a great sufferer, and as
days aA months passed by it became evident to his friends and to himself that
the span of life was drawing to an end; that the great iron king, the
statesman, would soon share the common lot. The good people of Dowlais heard it
with dread, and, shall it be added, with astonishment. He had been so prominent
a figure in their lives. They had known his childhood, and noted. his advance
to the prime and the robustness of life, and could scarcely imagine the strong
man cast down like an ordinary mortal. With his death, too, they feared that
the creation of his vigour and his intellect would be scattered to the winds.
If prayers and hope could have prolonged his life, it would have been done. But
it was not to be. With the chill winds and the gloom of November he faded; and
on the 26th November, 1852, aged 67, he lay stricken, dead.
We
well remember the day, and the universality 6f the woe in our district. The
place seemed to have but one great heart. Men and women spoke in the streets
with subdued voices; and the hush of death, instead of being confined to the
chamber, pervaded the valley. . . . All business was dosed, though it was
Saturday. He was buried, according to his wish, in the scene of his birth.
Dowlais Church was crowded at the ceremony, and never had Canon Jenkins been so
eloquent and impressive as when he preached from the text, "The Lord God
has made a breach upon us." He was buried in a vault in the Church; and
for many a long day the sad loss and the funeral ceremony were vividly
impressed on the public mind.
The
obituary notice in the Gentleman's Magazine was as follows:
"Sir
John Guest was a man of great mental capacities, a good mathernatician, and a
thorough man of business, not without a taste for the refinements of
literature. The creation of Dowlais, and its material prosperity, was not his
only merit, for he differed from his compeers in being a man of generous
instincts, and of enlarged sympathies. His care for his workmen did not end
with the payment of their daily earnings; he took a comprehensive view of his
social duties; he recognized, in precept as well as in practice, the principle
that property has its duties as well as its rights; and he extended his care
beyond the present generation into the next, beyond the race of men that now
is, to their descendants, destined to replace them in the lapse of time. It is
a great thing to be a supporter of twelve thousand men; but it is a greater,
nobler, and holier thing to be their guide, philosopher, and friend."
Though
he never figured as an orator, he was known to be a most valuable man on
committee. In fact, he was one of those who do the real work of the House
behind the scenes, while men of slighter parts and readier speech interest the
crowd from the stage. To him is due the credit of first suggesting the
feasibility of the telegraph.
He
was a born mechanic; and together he and Adrian Stephens, the engineer,
invented the locomotive steam whistle, which was first applied on the first
locomotive at Dowlais, the " Lady Charlotte." Sir John's great
success was due in part to his own ability, and also to his sagacity. While
'Mr. Hill was experimenting in his laboratory, he selected the best engineers,
saw to the minutest details, and could practically aid in all. It was no wonder
that, under his directions, so well followed by the management, that Dowlais
became the nursery of engineers.
Sir
John left immense wealth. Dowlais was his. He held also large estates in
Glamorgan, one, Boverton, the seat of Iestyn ap Gwrgant, the native lord; but
chief of all was Canford Manor, now the seat of Lord Wimborne, who, as Sir
Ivor, when he came of age in 1858, sat at the head of a festive throng of
friends and tenants, one thousand in number, and received at their hands a
magnificent silver flower-stand, with an affectionate dedication from the
tenants of Canford Manor. This gathering, as described to us by visitors from
Dowlais, was a most enthusiastic one, and was a fitting initiation to a life
which ever since has been one of the most harmonious in relation to the
tenants, and the people of the county generally. But we must here digress a
moment, and note another striking epoch in Lord Wimborne's career, which was
associated with his iron kingdom when he brought home his bride to Dowlais.
Accompanied by his wife, Lady Cornelia Churchill, they came by special train to
Troedyrhiw, where bride and bridegroom alighted, and from that place to
Dowlais, five miles distance, the carriage was literally seized upon by sturdy
ironworkers, and a huge procession was formed-in all respects the event of a
century. The whole distance was a scene of a gala character - tens of thousands
thronged the route; flags, mottoes, and all kinds of decorative emblems of
"Welcome" in English and Welsh, greeted the happy pair, while music
and vociferous shouting sounded everywhere. In the memory of old men, now
nearly all at rest, long lingered the recollection of one decoration. From a
cord stretched across the road was a huge likeness of Sir John, a fitting
testimony, not only to the respect held for the father, but the affection
extended to the son.
One
of Sir John's memorials, which will long be associated with his memory, is the
magnificent School at Dowlais. It was designed by Sir Charles Barry, the
architect of the new palace at Westminster, and consists of several
school-rooms--one for infants, and three each for boys and girls. The building
is 235 feet in length, by 100 feet in the centre. The infant school is 100 feet
long, by thirty-five feet wide, and fifty feet high. The boys' school at the
south end is 1100 feet long, by thirty feet wide, and thirty feet in height;
and there are two class-rooms, one twenty-five feet by twenty-one, and the
other forty-five feet by twenty-four. The girls' school-rooms at the north end
are three in number and of the same dimensions as those of the south end, and
the whole structure is stated to have cost £7,000. The school was publicly
opened with great ceremony, and was thronged with delighted people from all
parts of the hills. Since that time, first under the fostering hands of Lady
Charlotte and the Rev. Canon Jenkin , and then of the trustees (the Right. Hon.
H. A. Bruce, M.P., and G. T. Clark, Esq.), the school became an institute of
which even Wales was proud.
Lady
Charlotte remained some years in Dowlais after the death of her husband; and
when she left, the inhabitants lamented her loss as that of a kind, unaffected
friend; for she had always taken a strongly marked interest in the affairs of
her people. She also had a wider world of admirers than Dowlais could afford.
Gifted with considerable literary and artistic talent, and persevering to a
degree, she had plunged with ardour into the study of the Welsh language, and
became not simply an amateur archaeologist, but the translator of the
Mabinogion, a series of twelfth century tales of considerable merit. In this
she was aided by Tegid, by Taliesin Williams, and by Thos. Jenkins, all
accomplished Welshmen, who, admitting her ability, yet rendered when necessary,
those little technical aids which, had she been a native-born Welshwoman, might
not have been required. Upon the merits of the translation, however, Thomas
Stephens, the author of the Literature of the Kytnry, is the best authority. In his work he
pays a high compliment to her ability, adding: --- ÒHer version correctly
mirrors forth the spirit of these antique stories, and is as much distinguished
for elegance as fidelity."
With
her departure from the scene of her husband's greatness, and finally her
marriage to Mr. Charles Schreiber, M.P., the connection between her ladyship
and Dowlais was nearly severed. Only on one or two occasions did she revisit
the district to which she had been so good and great a benefactress in all
senses of the word. She died 9th January, 1895.
In
association with Dowlais there have been many men to whom more than a line of
historic significance is due. As one surveys the long list who come mentally
before as the lieutenants, as they may be termed, of the great captain of
industry, we note John and Thomas Fvans; M. C. Harrison; Doctors White and
Cresswell; the Hirst family; Thos. Jenkins, of the Schools; William Jenkins,
afterwards of Consett ; Edward Williams, of Middlesboro'; Wm. Evans, in later
years general manager; the Messrs. G. Martin, B. P. Martin, and H. W. Martin;
David James; Messrs. Houlson; Thos. Jones; Messrs. Richards; H. Roberts; B. R.
Jones. Few are remaining at this time (1907) even of the staff, and less of the
rank and file. Their names are engraved on the column of success, and many of
those who axe dead will be remembered as long as the generation remains, as
having aided, either in building up the great establishment, or rendered useful
aid to education, or the general welfare of the people.
Sir
John's death was only a little before the ending of the iron age. He did not
live to see the early indications that steel would in time supplant iron. It
was in 1856 that the Dowlais Company was one of the first to take out a license
from Bessemer for working Bessemer steel, and it was at Dowlais Works that
Bessemer steel was first rolled into rails. (See details of the process in History
of the Iron and Steel Trades,
page 290.) Still, iron rail make was by no means abandoned. Up to 1882 they
were made in large quantities; the change, however, in the structural
arrangements of the Works was beginning to be noted. In 1882 instead of 255
puddling furnaces, Dowlais only possessed 15 ! In that year Mr. Menelaus died,
at the age of 64. His life had been one of marked variety and unceasing energy.
He was born in Edinburgh 10th March, 1818 ; died at Tenby 1882. Trained in the
fitting shops, and expert; his first visit to Wales was to rectify defects in
connection with a water wheel at Hensol, the residence of Rowland Pothergill,
owner of Abemant Works.
DOWLAIS AFTER THE DEATH OF SIR JOHN.
At
Sir John's death the entire management fell to the care of Mr. John Evans; he
died at Sully in 1862.
Sir
John was succeeded in his estates by Sir Ivor, afterwards Lord Wimborne, the
Works being for a time under the control of trustees: Mr. G. T. Clark,
resident, and Lord Aberdare; chief manager, Mr. Menelaus ; deputy, Mr. E. P.
Martin. In the momentous period when Bessemer inaugurated the steel era, the
Dowlais management gave fullest aid to experimental efforts. See History ol
the Iron and Steel Trades.
Lord Wimbome by this time had come into full direction, and not only was a
great outlay incurred in establishing Dowlais-Cardiff, but also over a quarter
of a million sterling expended on sinking the deepest colliery in Wales at
Abercynon. This seam is of the first quality, containing 87 per cent. carbon,
6,000 acres in extent. Full notice of this also is given in the History of
the Iron and Steel Trades.
This was the final success of the Guest family. In 1901 the works were sold to
a limited company called Guest, Keen, and Company, Limited, which was formed of
a combination of Guest and Company and the Patent Nut and Bolt Company, and
with which Nettlefolds, Limited , was shortly afterwards amalgamated.
One
of the leading features carried out at Dowlais after the adoption of the
Bessemer process, has been the association with the Consett Iron Co., and with
Krupp of Essen, in acquiring large iron-ore deposits in the Bilbao district,
upon which they have since chiefly depended. The next step begun about 1887 was
the securing of land at Cardiff for the construction of Dowlais-Cardiff Works,
a great and notable enterprise. This was the outcome of negotiations entered
upon between Lord Wimborne, Sir W. T. Lewis, Mr. Clark, and Mr. E. P. Martin.
On February 2nd, 1891, after a world of difficulty in placing the foundations,
the Works were built, and first lit by Sir W. T. Lewis and Mr. E. P. Martin,
and blast put on by Lord Wimborne. An inaugural banquet was given in Cardiff on
the occasion.
Lord
Wituborne was not content in bringing the Dowlais iron and steel industry level
with the greatest of home and foreign works, but he also entered upon a task of
much difficulty in the renovation, as it might be termed, of Dowlais, where
ancient freeholds and leaseholds, and, it may be added, prejudices, barred the
road to necessary changes. In this he did good work, aided by Mr. E. P. Martin
and Mr. W. Evans, and in the intellectual and social life of the place by Lady
Wimborne. From that date their influence was felt in Schools, in Library, and
Reading Room, for a little time, though it was a most difficult task to alter
the old course of things, and so the completion was not to be; and it was with
great regret that the old homestead was transformed into offices, and that a
severance took place. But the increasing burden of a district equal to a small
kingdom, with its forty thousand souls, made the task of governing too
laborious, and the end of the paternal rule came to Dowlais, as it came to all
the works of the old pioneers, or, as they way justly be termed, the paternal
ironmasters, and Lord and Lady Wimborne, to the sorrow of all, bade the place
farewell.
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Rev. November 2009