MONTGOMERYSHIRE PATRIOTISM IN 1798. BY ASKEW ROBERTS, OsWESTRY. THE late Mr. Thomas Wright, in his Caricature History of the Georges, gives the following information :-“ Ä A paragraph from a Parisian paper of the 26th of November 1797, proclaimed that the army of England is created; it is commanded by the conqueror of Italy. After having restored peace to the Continent, France is at length about to employ all her activity against the tyrants of the seas. Mr. Wright is wrong here in his dates, for the proclamation was copied into the provincial papers nearly three weeks earlier, so must have been known in London probably in October. He is right, however, in his conclusions, that, "In England the alarm was great!" We must, indeed, have been in a pretty panic. A clause had been inserted in the bill for augmenting the assessed taxes (passed December 1797), whereby voluntary subscriptions, over and above those taxes, would be thankfully received and gratefully acknowledged by a cabinet sorely short of cash; and the King sent a gracious message to Parliament on January 11, 1798, in which his Majesty "thought proper to acquaint the House of Lords" with facts everybody already seemed to have known, that "he had received various advices of preparations being made, and measures taken by France of attempting an invasion of these kingdoms." Mr. Secretary Dundas, at a still earlier period---November 2, 1797—in moving his bill for allowing militia-men to enlist into the VOL. XI. T regulars, got more than officially excited, and talked of our being "some night, when we were sleeping in our beds, awakened to a conviction of our folly," if we felt too confident of security; and it was very evident by the results, that our grandfathers—and grandmothers -did not want to be waked up by a Frenchman at their doors, even if they slept at all for two or three months; and it is to give the readers of Montgomeryshire Collections a record of the way in which the worthies of that county responded to the call of Government, that I have taken the trouble to cull from newspapers of the period the doings of various towns and villages, so far as they have been chronicled. I must premise that these records are necessarily imperfect, Montgomeryshire not then possessing newspapers of its own, and having to depend on those of Shrewsbury for its information. Enough, however, is given to show how "stirred to the heart" was this county in common with others, for its response came from its tenderest part-the pocket. We should be very unjust to the memory of our ancestors, if we affected to suppose that there was any cowardice in their panic. In our own time we have seen what a fancied invasion will do in rousing Britons who never will be slaves. As in the reign of Napoleon the Third, so in that of his great uncle, talk of invasion made every other man you met a soldier; and in 1798, as in 1860, every county saw its regiment of volunteers. On the 9th of May 1798, we are told, "The inhabitants of Montgomery met in the Guildhall, and feeling it a duty incumbent upon them as Britons to reuder every assistance in their power, as well in the defence of the liberty and independence of their country, as their own lives and properties, they resolved to raise a Volunteer Corps of Infantry immediately in the Town and Neighbourhood, to act anywhere within the County, and also in the adjoining counties within ten miles of the County of Montgomery." This shows pluck and determination; but it was in money chiefly that our grandfathers sought to strengthen the hands of the Government, and Montgomeryshire was set a noble example by its county member, Francis Lloyd, Esq., who was one of the earliest of subscribers, putting down his name for £1000 "towards the exigencies of the State." This example was speedily followed, and all classes vied with each other in the liberality of their subscriptions. The first action of any public body I find reported, was that of a Friendly Society at Welshpool, and its good deed is thus recorded: "The Members of the Young Benefit Club in Welshpool have unanimously voted £20 for the exigencies of the State; which is a striking proof of their loyalty, and reflects the more credit upon them, as the club chiefly consists of labourers." The first list advertised is that of Montgomery, and appended to it is the resolution of a vestry, which seems to express in a few words the feeling of the great mass of the people. The vestry held an opinion that it was desirable to have, and to publish, even the smallest sums, because a universal voluntary subscription, "minutely published to the world, would be a substantial expression of the attachment of the great body of the people to the independence of their country; and thereby damp the ambition of the enemy, and conduce materially to the shortening of the destructive war." Doubtless the Montgomery vestrymen were right in this; for a foreign power must necessarily be more impressed with a nation's united determination in the subscription to a voluntary tax, than it would be at a compulsory one, carried by the Government of a party. A national subscription, which the King headed with £200,000 out of his private purse, exhibited a more practical patriotism than singing "Rule Britannia" at public meetings, and would carry its weight accordingly. Judicious as were the men of that day in giving prominence to the "pennies" in their subscription lists, it will scarcely be worth our while to go down below the "guineas"; and I give these, as far as I have them, that the descendants of the donors may be able to trace their ancestors in the lists. And now to return to Montgomery. The names are as follows: In addition to these, there is a sum of five guineas from a club of labouring men, who would have subscribed more only the committee refused to receive it. The village of Cemmaes comes next in order, and early in the month of April it is announced that the parish had subscribed £10 17s. 6d., and Labourers' Club five guineas out of its funds. The "Voluntary Subscription of the Inhabitants of the Middle Division of the Town of Pool," is not advertised until the end of April. The total amount acknowledged is £138 9s. 3d., and the following are the leading subscriptions: 1 The father of the late Rector of Montgomery, the Rev. Maurice Lloyd. 2 Afterwards knighted. 3 A well-known Solicitor. His engraved portrait is in the Powysland Museum. 4 Father of the late Mr. David Jones of Llwydiarth Park. 5 Father of the late Mrs. Harrison of the Cottage, Welshpool. 6 Father of the late Dr. Henry Jones of Welshpool, and a cousin of Captain Jones of Maesmawr. Father of the late Mrs. Pugh of Llanerchydol. In addition to these, we have "Mr. Frances's Academy" contributing £2 3s.; and "Richard Morris, his all, 34d.", a man, one would think, lineally descended from the widow whose "mite" is so often promised but never given. The Manafon list contains fifty-six names, and the principal subscriptions include Rice Pryce, Esq., and the Rev. M. Davies, each £3 3s., and Mr. Charles Evans, £1 1s. At the same date there is also a short list from Llangyniew, headed by the Rev. Mr. Owen, rector of the parish, with £5 5s., followed by Joseph Jones, Esq., Dolobran,' £5 5s.; Mr. Thomas Owen, Ma 1 The owner of Bryn-y-buckley. 2 Grandfather of the Rev. J. J. Turner of Pentreheilin. 4 Father of the late Mrs. Edmunds of Edderton. 5 Fifteen years later an event occurred at this "Corner Shop" that more effectually alarmed the Poolonians than any rumour of invasion could have done. About four o'clock on the morning of the 3rd Dec. 1813, a fire broke out on the premises, when five barrels of gunpowder exploded, smashing up everything that was near; breaking a variety of windows to a considerable distance; awakening the whole town; and killing, by fright, the hostess of the Britannia Inn! See biographical sketch of him, supra, p. 8. 7 She lived in Hall Street, formerly called Quality Square. 8 Maternal grandmother of Mrs. Edmunds. "Father of the late Joseph Jones, Esq., Clerk of the Peace for the County of Montgomery. |