Cylchgronau Cymru

The other 54 acres owned by the Cooks were Cefn y Parc (52 acres) and a 2 acre holding in Cwm Clydach, both in Rhyndwyglydach Lower. These were owned by Mrs Jane Cook (1781-1848), the wife of Dr William Cook (1781- c.1805), another son of John, whom she married in 1800. She however resided at Clyn Coch (112 acres) in Rhyndwyglydach Higher, and is also named on the tithe apportionment as occupier of the adjoining 50 acre Tyr y Berllan. Dr Phillip Cook (1787-1865), brother of William, occupied Ty Gwyn, the former abode of his father John, as tenant of the Miers (Ynyspenllwch) estate. The Martin family, whose chief residence was Ynystawe House, also added to their estate-as a result of the Briton Ferry sale, Thomas Lott Martin (1789-1866) acquiring three contiguous properties in Rhyndwyglydach Higher Llestreharne, Tyr y Berllan and Clyn Coch.53 He was the eldest son of Edward Martin (1762/3- 1818), a colliery engineer and mining surveyor from Cumberland who had been the Duke of Beaufort's chief agent in Wales.54 Edward Martin married Martha Lott (1763-1844), the daughter of Thomas Lott (c.1735-1808) of Cwmgelly in Clase Lower. Thomas Lott had acquired Ynystawe House in 1792/93 from Michael Southcote (71746-93) of Llangynog, Carmarthenshire, and formerly of Fleethouse, Dorset, who himself had obtained the property in 1775 from William and Elizabeth Jones of Neath.55 Prior to the Jones's, the property had been in the ownership of the illustrious Popkin family for some four centuries, Thomas Popkin of Brincoch (d.1753) conveying it to Elizabeth Jones in September 1751.56 Five members of the Martin family, headed by Martha Martin, lived at Ynystawe House (130 acres) in 1841. As well as Ynystawe, Martha also owned four other properties Gwernfadog (114 acres), Tyr Deunaw (17 acres), Penrhiwdin (10 acres) and Aberclydach (9 acres). A further four were owned jointly with the solicitor Thomas Barton Snead (1819-85),57 including the three which her son, Thomas Lott Martin, had acquired in 1821. Another four properties, totalling 181 acres, were owned by her second son, William Martin (1801-79): Cwmgelly (89 acres, formerly the ancestral home of his maternal grandfather Thomas Lott), Cwmrhydyceirw (42 acres), Tir yr Heol Ddu (26 acres) all in Clase Lower and a second Tyr Deunaw holding (24 acres) in Penderry Lower. Joseph Martin (1807-50), William's younger brother (a barrister at law and high sheriff of Glamorgan 1841), also owned four properties in the vicinity of Ynystawe, namely, Llanllienwen (49 acres), Ynysglyncollen (65 acres), Maes y Gwemen (65 acres), Tyr Bach (3 acres), as well as a holding on Waun Cydie (10 acres) in Penderry Lower, making a total of 192 acres.58 The eldest son, Thomas Lott Martin, owned two holdings in Rhyndwyglydach Lower, which had previously been directly owned by the Duke of Beaufort, namely, Graig Trebanos (49 acres) and Gwybedyn (57 acres), as well as the 62 acre Graig Trebanos sheepwalk.