Villa de Bodlew. terr Oweni holland in Ynys Acken, ixd. Villa de Porthamel. John Wyn ap Jevan ap John pro terr Owini Holland apud Carnan, vjd. Rowland ap Jevan pro terr' Owini Holland voc tir y pylys, xxjd. Richard ap David ap Richard pro tir Elinor, ixd. Villa de Trefarthen et Berw Issaf. Willm Hampton pro terr Owini Holland, iijs. viijd. David ap Lln pro terr Owini Holland voc tir coch ap hoell, ijd. Owen Holland pro terr suis, ijs." RENTALE COMOTI MENAY. Carnan. 1577. Owen Holand pro terr suis ibidem, vjd. Villa de Porthamel. Nycolas Gruff pro terr Owen Holand vocat tyddyn y pylys, xxjd. Villa de Trefarthyn et berw issa. Owen holand pro terris suis, ijs. iiijd. Lewys Edmond pro terr koch ap holl, ijd. Owen Holand pro terris suis voc tir place, ijs. Villa de Bryngwyn. Rys gruff pro terr Owen Holand, viijd. Berw uwcha, hamlet de Porthamel. Hugh ap Reswyn pro terr suis, xviijd. Villa de Bodlew. Dd ap Mathew pro terr Owen Holand, iijd. Uxor dd ap Thomas pro terr Owen Holand in ynys acken et terr yr ardd ddu, xixd. Willm ap Llewelyn pro terr Owen Holand vockae bach, iiijd. Rys Jeffrey pro terr Owen Holand voc y carregpoeth, iiijd. It will be observed that the distinction of the "tir place," or mansion house, as being in Berw issa is maintained in both these extracts. "Lytle Holland" in due time arrived at man's estate, and, his mother dying, Mr. Hampton followed the prevailing fancy for second marriages by taking to himself another wife. In 1578 Owen Holland, no longer little, married Elizabeth, one of the daughters of one of the principal men in the kingdom, Sir Richard Bulkeley, of Baronhill. There is a curious mystery about this honourable knight's marriages-for he had two wives, and the pedigrees do not agree with other and better evidence. It is, therefore, doubtful who was the mother of this Elizabeth Bulkeley. Among the trustees of the settlement made upon the marriage of Owen Holland are found the Rev. Rowland Bulkeley, Rector of Llandegvan, and Mr. John Bulkeley, of Cremlyn, brothers of the bride; Mr. William Hampton, of Henllys, halfbrother of the groom, and Mr. Robert Hampton, halfbrother of William, son of his father's second wife. Doubtless, this intimate connection with the Bulkeleys was of value to the Hollands, both in Owen's and in subsequent generations. Owen Holland's initials appear on several parts of the house at Berw, in which he lived for many years; he also acquired by purchase many farms and lands; but he chiefly enriched himself and his heirs by obtaining an interest in the coalfield at Berw. Though it is known that coals were raised in England a thousand years ago, and though it is recorded that the Flintshire mines were worked in the time of Edward the First, no allusion to the Anglesey veins has been met with earlier than 1450, when Tudor ap Llewelyn of Sychnantissa in Esceifiog seems to have known something about their value. Some fifty years later his grandson, Llewelyn ap Res ap Tuder ap Llewelyn, was tenant under the Crown of the township of Esceifiog and all the mineral rights therein. This grant, it will be at once observed, comprised those mines which are now disused, at Tyddyn Mawr and other places high up the Malltraeth Marsh. Llewelyn had only a term of years in the mines, which expired in 1532, and on the 13th September in that year King Henry the Eighth made a new grant of them to William Sackville, one of the grooms of his chamber, for forty years, "with lycens to take and to sell the sea coales within the said townshippe." For this he was to pay annually £7: 8: 8. Twenty years later Sackville received a grant in fee farm (from Edward VI) of fifteen messuages in "Heredrevaike," at a yearly rent of £5: 2:6. Very likely he got a good deal of his rent back by subletting the lands, or part of them: thus, in 1546 he leased "Tyddyn-y-Weine" for twelve years, reserving "to the quene's use" sixpence, and to his own use a contribution of "two labourers for one day yerely in the sumer tyme to wurke in the colepitts at Eskyviog upon a warning," and "one day reaping to the rent gatherer yerely.' Another portion of the coalfield was let to Richard Browne, of Dorking, gentleman, who also sublet it. Sackville was dead in 1564, but his lease had still eight years to run. Sir Nicholas Bagenal, Marshal of Ireland, fully alive to the value of this mineral property, got hold of the lease, and obtained from the crown a further grant to himself of an extension of it for twenty-five years from 1571. He also became possessed of the messuages in Hirdrevaig. For this he paid a fine of forty pounds into the Exchequer, and agreed to pay the rents before accustomed, and to keep in repair all banks, shores, and sea-walls; a condition which, coupled with the fact that a grant of Eskyviog, dated 1577, includes wrecks of sea, may well set us reflecting how far the sea then came up the marsh. Example so good and profitable as that of the Groom of the Chambers and the Irish Marshal could not fail to be followed, even if immediate enjoyment could not be had. So, Henry Harvie, Esquire, one of Her Majesty's Gentlemen Pensioners, put in his claim, and obtained a grant of divers rich things, including the township of Esceifiog with its coal, which he was to enjoy for thirty years from 1592; that is, from the expiration of Bagenal's extended lease. Sir Nicholas, however, capped this little arrangement by getting Queen Bess to grant him in fee simple, the reversion of, among other places," the township of Esceifiog and all the mines and minerals there." This is dated in 1577, and made Bagenal and his heirs Harvie's landlords, and possessors of all" the rights of the crown in Esceifiog, including 'mynes, quarries, wreakes of the sea, natyve men and natyve women, and villayns with their sequell," in as ample a manner as any Prince of Wales, or any other person the same had held." His tenure was "in capite by the twentieth part of a knight's fee, and the annual payment of £7: 8: 8." Sir Nicholas Bagenal died, and his son, Sir Henry, reigned in his stead, both as Marshal in Ireland; and over Esceifiog. There we find him in 1596. He was also mortgagee of Plas newydd in Anglesey, then nominally the property of Mr. Maurice Griffith, unclemother's brother-to Mr. Owen Holland of Berw, who, seeing that Sir Henry lived principally in Ireland, kindly offered to assist him in managing his Anglesey property. One result of this piece of politeness was that by deed dated 8 August, 1596, the Berw family became owners of a large tract in Esceifiog-including Cefn du (where there is no coal), subject to a crown rent of £3: 14: 4: and to a condition that one-half of all coals found upon those lands should belong to Sir Henry Bagenal. Holland had bought up Harvie's lease, which had only been running four years, and seems to have made the surrender of that term to Sir Henry Bagenal the consideration of the grant of half the township. It would appear that the transfer was arranged somewhat sub rosa, because the royal permission necessary to its validity was never applied for. Indeed, many years afterwards, in 1607, it became necessary to have the transaction ratified by letters patent under the great seal of James I, which that monarch consented to, for a consideration of eighty pounds. Even then, however, the Bagenal people seem to have been dissatisfied that the coal-field had left them; and, so late as 1649, in some chancery proceedings relating to other portions of the township, Owen Holland is distinctly charged with having cheated Sir Henry Bagenal. "Sir Henry," says the petition, "being thereof seized in feefarme after y decease of his said father and ye said former lease being shortly to expire and ye said lease in revercon [i.e. Harvie's] to commence, ye said Owen Holland, dwelling neere ye said Townshippe used means to persuade y° sd Sir Henry Bagenall, being a straunger in those parts and residing altogether in Ireland upon yo employment and service of ye state there, for ye extinguishing of ye force of ye sd lease in revercon of ye said townshippe wherein ye sd Owen Holland was become interested as aforesaid and for settling ye said Sir Henry Bagenal in poss'on of ye moyetie thereof, to grant ye feefarme of ye other moyetie of ye said townshippe to him ye said Owen Holland and his heires and to permit ye said Owen Holland to devide y sayde Townshippe and ye sd Sir Henry Bagenal should have ye first choyce after ye division made, and soe enjoy ye better pte of ye said Townshippe, for and in respect whereof ye said Sir Arthur [evidently a mistake for Henry] Bagenal was to give y° some of one hundred pounds of lawful money of England to him ye said Owen Holland and ye sd Sir Henry Bagenall upon ye promise allso of ye sd Owen Holland to do and perform some service for ye sd Sir Henry Bagenall in ye letting and advancing his estate in Wales he ye sd Sir Henry Bagenal did assent and agree thereunto as was desired and agreed unto by ye sd Owen Holland and his friends; and by reason of his residency in Ireland upon ye states service as afsd he was forced to intrust some person unknown to ye oratrix [petitioner] yt did live in ye sd com of Anglesey to see ye devision of ye sd Townshippe and ye sd Owen Holland did proceed to ye making of ye sd devision and after such devision was made such person as was intrust by ye sd Sir Henry Bagenal to choose for hym ye better p'te and moyetie soe devided being overswaded by ye sd Owen Holland did make choyse of yt p't of ye sd premises wch was of ye least valew and worth for ye sd Sir Henry Bagenal; and when yesd divident was so made and put in writing he ye sd Owen Holland having ye same in his custody for one night, caused it |