{"id":29,"date":"2016-05-05T04:19:14","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T04:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/?p=29"},"modified":"2024-08-05T22:34:16","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T22:34:16","slug":"swansea-road-nurseries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rwgevans.com\/family\/swansea-road-nurseries\/","title":{"rendered":"Swansea Road Nurseries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Roberts family connection with gardening in Llanelli goes back to the early nineteenth century when John and Frances Wells<\/a> arrived in Llanelli as a young couple at some point between their wedding at Saint Margaret\u2019s Church, Westminster in April 1809 and the birth of their  daughter Sarah<\/a> in July 1811. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John came from the Devil\u2019s Acre<\/a>, a deprived area of Westminster in London where his mother (according to witness evidence to an Old <\/a>Bailey<\/a> trial in 1789<\/a>) \u2018sold greens about the streets in a cart\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He worked as a gardener, probably for the family of George III\u2019s sergeant surgeon Sir David Dundas<\/a> at Wauncrychydd Farm or Ael y Bryn, on the site of what is now the Diplomat Hotel in Felinfoel.  The death of John Wells\u2019 three-month-old son John in 1813 is recorded in the Llanelli Parish register<\/a> as \u201cat Dundas\u2019s\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The population of Llanelli at that time was around 2,000.  Most of them were said to be miners and sailors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cLlanelly is a small irregular town and contains an old seat of Sir John Stepney\u2019s, which though deserted by the family, afforded habitation to numerous tenants, till the mischievous operation of the window-tax in driving them out, left it to moulder in decay.  The high square embattled tower if its church is remarkable, in being much wider at the base than upwards, forming a sort of cone.  This town, however, offering no objects to detain us, we proceeded without halting and in a few miles ride gained the summit of Pembree Hill.<\/p>\nJ.T. Barber\u2019s tour throughout South Wales and Monmouthshire 1803<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018The gentry of Llanelly have subscribed liberally for the formation of a promenade near the seaside, entirely for the accommodation of the many genteel families that annually visit that delightful spot, for which for salubrious air, and sea bathing, few places in the principality can equal. <\/p>\nThe Cambrian: 7th<\/sup> July 1804<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The number of ships with their tonnage entered and cleared outwards at the port of Llanelli in the Midsummer Quarter last amounted to 328 vessels and 13,629 tonnes (paper reports arrivals and departures from French, Norwegian, North Wales Ireland \u2013 carrying wine brandy, 1827 \u2013 brig called the Bridgend of Pembroke, on passage from America to Llanelli with a cargo of timber. <\/p>\nThe Cambrian 12th<\/sup> July 1806<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It would appear that Frances Wells died in childbirth in 1813.  According to Arthur Mee\u2019s book about the Llanelli Parish Church published in 1888 she was buried at the Parish Church<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Two years later in 1815 John Wells re-married Margaret Roberts by special licence and they had another eight children, six of whom survived beyond infancy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n