Morton Anglicorum.

[wrjones]

I was sent the following info in an email.It may well be of interest to those with ancestors in the Johnstow/Ruabon area.

William Russell Jones "Morton Anglicorum" was a small area within "Morton Below". It was not a township in its own right. In his book "The History of Ruabon" Palmer himself is a bit vague about this! I read an article a few years back which said that the name came from a group of English immigrants who settled in the area in the early Middle Ages. It was they who started the first "industry" in Ruabon. They were iron workers who dug the iron ore and then extracted and worked the iron. The name Gyfelia comes from the Welsh "gefail" (a forge) / "gefeiliau" (forges) and those forges lay along the lane linking the Bangor Road and the Overton Road. They used coal from the Black Park area, which could make Black Park one of the earliest mining areas in Wales? When the forges were cleaned out, the spoil was dumped at the southern end of the lane in an area which became known, appropriately, as Cinders/Cynders/Sindre.After working there for a few generations these people left Wales and returned to England, I believe the West Midlands? It appears that they were "head-hunted" by a wealthy local landowner who offered them land there and probably a great deal of money? Today there is virtually no trace of their works in Ruabon.The name "Morton Anglicorum" only appears in one, or maybe two, censuses. In the others it was simply absorbed into Morton Below.

Regards
William Russell Jones..

[nestagj]

Thank you William - have just googled Morton Anglecorum and your explanation was excellent.   My husband's ancestors actually lived Cynders Cottage in 1861.
Nesta