This photograph, kindly provided by Darren, is of Cornelius Evans. He looks every inch the strong character to me. I can easily imagine that walking stick being put to good use!
BAPTISM: 10th September 1820, Llanishen, Monmouthshire.
FATHER: John Evans, farmer of Tregirog House, Llanishen.
MOTHER: Temperance Evans.
SIBLINGS: John, Hannah, Margaret, Eliza, Emma, Harriet, William, Edward and Jabez Evans.
OCCUPATION(S): Farmer. Known to have farmed at Rhydymaen (Llandenny), Porthcreddig (Llangwm Ucha), Penpedairheol (near Crickhowell) and Glascoed Vach (Glascoed).
WIFE: Martha Griffiths.
MARRIAGE: First quarter of 1859, Abergavenny Registration District, Monmouthshire.
CHILDREN:
- Mary Jane Evans (c.1860).
- Emma Evans (c.1862).
- John Evans (c.1865).
- Martha Evans (baptised 23rd September 1866).
- William Evans (baptised 26th March 1869).
- Harriet Evans (c.1870).
- Agnes Evans (c.1873).
- Thomas Evans (c.1878).
DEATH: First quarter of 1904, Monmouth Registration District, Monmouthshire, aged 84.
BIOGRAPHY
Cornelius Evans was born in about 1820 and baptised at Llanishen Church on 10th September of that year. He was the son of John and Temperance Evans of Tregirog House, Llanishen, where he was almost certainly born and raised.
The first census record that I have found for Cornelius is in 1841, when he was living with his parents and siblings at Rhydymaen, Llandenny. By 1851, he had established himself as a farmer at Porthcreddig, Llangwm Ucha, where he was farming 100 acres and living with his sister Margaret.
Cornelius married Martha Griffiths in 1859. By the time of the 1861 census they were living at Porthcreddig with their infant daughter Mary Jane. Over the following years the family continued to grow and by 1871 Cornelius was farming 166 acres at Penpedairheol, near Crickhowell.
Although Cornelius is remembered in Glascoed, he arrived in the village relatively late in life. By 1881 he was farming at Glascoed Vach, where he is recorded with Martha and several of their children. He remained there during the 1880s and appears again at Glascoed Vach on the 1891 census, by which time he was a widower aged 72.
His daughter Mary Jane married Thomas Parry of Usk. By 1901 Thomas and Mary Jane had taken over the tenancy of Glascoed Vach, continuing the family’s connection with the farm.
Meanwhile, Cornelius had retired and was living with his son John Evans at Rhydymaen Farm, Llandenny. There is something rather fitting about this return to Llandenny in old age, as it was there that he appeared with his parents on the 1841 census sixty years earlier.
Cornelius died in 1904 at the age of 84. During his long life he farmed substantial acreages across Monmouthshire and left a family which remained closely connected to Glascoed and the surrounding area for many years afterwards.
