A Jewel for a Jacobite

It's Christmas morning, 1715 and Catrin discovers a Jacobite fugitive on a Welsh mountainside. She is now in mortal danger and no longer sure who she can trust. The new farm hand, Jenkyn, is an enigma and even her loyal maid, Jenette, places her in peril. How can she also repulse the amorous advances of wealthy neighbour Griffith Evans, and still protect the man she loves? Set in the pre-industrial Rhondda Valley, this is a tale of deception, suspicion, treachery and love. Much has been written about the Rhondda Valley after the advent of the Industrial Revolution, when the iron works and coal pits desecrated the land. The action of this novel, however, takes place before those days and before the Religious Revival which transformed the thinking of the Welsh people. The area described was originally known as Ystradyfodwg and comprised a parallelogram of territory, approximately sixteen miles long by four miles wide and traversed by the Rhondda Fawr River. It stretched from present day Cymmer in the south, to Rhigos in the north. The Shrine and Holy Well at Penrhys was a famous place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages and until the Reformation.The oak statue of Our Lady was then carted off to London where it was burnt publicly together with the statue from Walsingham.The jewels with which it had been adorned over the years were confiscated for the Royal coffers. George Lewis and John Sweet, minor characters in the concluding chapters, appear in local records as Jacobite sympathisers and were constantly fined for harassing the authorities. Mr. and Mrs. Morris of Llantarn are based on a couple called Matthews who lived at Llancaiach near Merthyr Tydfil. When her husband died in 1726 an action was brought against Anne Matthews for recovery of her property, as her brother-in-law claimed that she was unable, as a Catholic, to inherit. Father Davies was a native of Montgomery and worked for 54 years in the area, dying at Llanarth, Gwent in 1761 aged 84.

Publisher -

Language - English

Paperback

Contributors

Author

Bronwen Hughes

Bronwen Hughes

Published Date -

ISBN - 9781909129573

Dimensions - 20.3 x 12.7 x 2.0 cm

Page Count - 246