Penrice Estate Gower

[welshgirl]

Does anyone know whether Nicholaston is part of the Penrice Estate?  I know it is close by, but does it officially come under Penrice?

[osprey]

Nicholaston is in the parish of Penmaen and the castle itself in the parish of Penrice. However, according to the Slater's directory of 1880 both parishes have C R M Talbot, Esq. M.P. as 'lord of the manor' and with Thomas Penrice, ESQ. J.P., 'owner of the soil'. I suspect that the further back you go, the bigger the estate would have been.

You could google Penrice Castle and once you've passed the adverts for the cottages in the castle grounds, there is some history to be found. The National Archives and the National Library of Wales have documents pertaining to the estate as it 's been around about 600 years.

[welshgirl]

Thanks for your help.  I suppose that someone born in Nicholaston in early 1800's, being so close to Penrice, might have stated place of birth on a later census as Penrice. 

[osprey]

I believe it was not uncommon practice for people to give as their place of birth a bigger town nearby. As Nicholaston and Penrice were both rural and not huge populations this isn't really the case - 1841 Penrice had 385(falling to 242 in 1891) according to the census and and Nicholaston 119 ( falling to 100 in 1891)- but Penrice was bigger in relative terms.I did find something about the acreage and again Penrice was much bigger but I can't find the details now - Nicholaston was 335 acres.

Having re-read my previous post, I realised what I said wasn't exactly correct. Nicholaston was a separate parish but for census purposes was enumerated with Penmaen.

Baptisms from St Nicholas from 1815-1875 should be on the IGI. There wasn't a chapel in the parish at that time and I can't think of one now, unless there was a small one built during the revival in 1905 now a house.

[welshgirl]

There is a church at Nicholaston today which is apparently built on remains of a 14th century church.  The church that now exists was paid for by Miss Olive Talbot as a memorial to her father, but work wasn't completed until 1894.  So you are correct in saying that there wasn't a church in early 1800's.  Do you think that registration of a birth  in mid 1800s would have been made through Swansea Register?

[osprey]

I said there was no chapel - non-conformist worship, so there would only be one place to look for baptisms as no alternative within the parish. The church was and is still St Nicholas and the BTs are on the IGI up to 1875 - good picture of it on the Church in Wales website. There's the odd gap in the BTs at the national Library and probably a significant one for 1894 when the church was being rebuilt, using some of the original stone by the looks of it.

The registration depends on when the event was registered. From July 1837 to 31/10/1858 it would have been Swansea. From 1/11/1858 to /1/1935 it would have been Gower. After that it reverted to Swansea and is now West Glamorgan. Registers are now in Swansea.

[welshgirl]

Thanks for you help Osprey, I now know where to look for records.