Princes of Afan

Chapter 3: The Aberafan Charter, c.1306

Undoubtedly one of the jewels in our collections is Leisan ap Morgan’s charter to Aberafan, and this is the latest in a series of charters to feature in the pages of this report with a new transcription and translation. Leisan ap Morgan was a descendant of Iestyn ap Gwrgant and the seventh Lord of Afan, one of a line of Welsh rulers of the area between the River Afan and the tops of the hills that divide the Afan and Neath valleys. This remarkable little charter is undated, but it was probably made around 1306. It is a rare example of a borough charter granted by a Welsh rather than a Norman lord, and has had a history punctuated by dramatic incidents.

It has been in the public domain since 1953, when it was presented to the Borough of Port Talbot by Edward C. Barker of Coventry, who had acquired it at a country house sale down at Helston in Cornwall. Being rather fragile, it was sent to Glamorgan Record Office for safe keeping, where it was flattened, strengthened with a gauze backing and given a new housing to keep it safe, made of buckram and board. A translation was printed on the inside cover to help make it accessible. It came to Swansea in the 1980s among the records destined for the new West Glamorgan Area Record Office, and here it remains to this day.

Before that, it tended to surface and disappear on a regular basis. When he published a transcription in his Cartae et Munimenta de Glamorgan (1910), G. T. Clark referred to it simply as ‘Lord Swansea’s Charter’, implying that it was then in the hands of Ernest Ambrose Vivian, Baron Swansea (1848-1922). Before that, Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of Wales (1833) described Aberavon as a borough by prescription, suggesting it was not in possession of its charter. A century earlier, according to a note dated 1735 on the dorse of the document itself, it was used as evidence in Chancery in a case brought against the Portreeve and Burgesses of Afan, suggesting that at that time it was still in their possession. During the century before that, according to local folklore, the charter narrowly avoided destruction by Cromwell’s men. This is said to have taken place in 1648 in retaliation for the town’s support of the Royalist cause. Samuel Lewis tells the story quite succinctly:

‘During the usurpation of Cromwell, the portreeve, being apprised of the approach of the protector’s emissaries, contrived to secure the charter and other documents relating to the borough, by concealing them in a rough piece of oak, in which he had formed a cavity for that purpose, and on which, upon the arrival of the officers, he was found chopping sticks, as upon a common block. By this artifice the papers were preserved, and the piece of oak, upon which the marks of the hatchet are still visible, is now carefully preserved as the corporation chest’.¹

The piece of oak has travelled much less than the charter. It was in the town hall council chamber in 1926 according to James O’Brien² and it is on show to this day at Port Talbot Civic Centre.

Despite its adventures, the charter is on the whole in a good state of preservation. It is written on a piece of velum measuring 24 x 10.5 cm with the bottom margin of 1.5 cm folded up to support the seal tag, which is a doubled-over strip of parchment about 12 cm in length. The seal (pictured) is in good condition. It is made of a dark green wax, measures 2.5 cm in diameter, and has at some stage been varnished in the interests of preservation. On the obverse are the arms of the guarantor, Gules, three chevrons Argent (which means three silver chevrons on a red background) surrounded with enough surviving letters to supply the legend + S. LE[YSA]N [AP M]ORGAN (the seal of Leisan ap Morgan). The reverse is plain and rounded. The one pervasive horizontal fold and two vertical ones indicate that the document was once stored folded, but it has been kept flat since its repair at Glamorgan Record Office in 1955.

The script is clear, fine and by and large quite legible, although there are circular areas of historic mould damage and some holes that obscure some of the letters. Nonetheless, the text is nowhere in doubt. The Latin has some vernacular features; for instance, the adjective frequently precedes the noun as it does in English, a feature uncommon in correct Latin, Welsh or French. Similarly, the verb is positioned in the heart of the sentence as it is in English, only reverting to its usual Latin position at the end of the clause in the standard phrases at the beginning and end of the document.

The text itself is simple and straightforward, but there are three areas that have caused errors and misunderstandings in the past. The first are the chenseres. James O’Brien’s translation wrongly gives this as ‘chancers’, which has been taken to mean market stall-holders. The Glamorgan Record Office translation is ‘chense payers’, while ‘censers’ appears in some old legal text books, both of which mean little without explanation. So who were they? In the document they are always coupled with burgenses, the burgesses, who held burgage plots, ran the affairs of the borough and are described as English. The chens-/cens-/sens- root is all to do with the payment of rent, and the Revised Medieval Latin Word-list quotes instances of chenseria meaning a burgage rent paid by non-burgesses. The chenseres (censers) therefore pay rent for properties within the borough, but lack the status of the burgesses. Notably, as will be seen from the text of the charter, both groups were granted the same additional rights by the lord of Afan.

The second problematic passage relates to the payment of eight gallons of beer. The confusion comes from the word cervisia, which can mean beer (like the Spanish cerveza). The root cervis- is also a variant spelling of servic-, meaning service or rent, but with a different set of endings. It is likely that the scribe mistakenly wrote cervisia (beer) instead of cervisio (service, rent), which the sense requires. Finally, the names of three places that mark the boundaries of the pasture on Mynydd Dinas all end in -ecȝ in the original text, the final character being the obsolete letter yogh, which equates to the modern Welsh ch. Earlier translations and transcriptions ignored one or other of the letters, either making all three placenames end in -ec, or in -ez, neither of which is correct. I have transcribed this as –ech, which I believe better represents the sound intended.

What follows is my transcription and a literal translation which remains true to the rhythm of the original. Both are new: although there are other earlier versions in existence, the transcriptions, especially those based on Clark’s Cartae, contain many errors and approximations that sometimes depart from the meaning of the original, and the translations suffer as a result.

Translation

Let those present and future know that I, Leysan ap Morgan, Lord of Afan, son and heir of Morgan Vachan, have given, granted and by this my present charter confirmed, for myself and my heirs or assigns, to all the English burgesses and also to my censers of Afan
and their heirs and assigns, all the liberties in my town of Afan and in all my demesne
within the boundaries of Afan which the burgesses of Kenfig have in the town of Kenfig and within the demesne of the Lord Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, as much as I am able.

And they shall give eight gallons from any brewery for the rent of the mill and for a tax to me, my heirs and assigns.

I have also granted, for me, my heirs and assigns, to my said burgesses and censers of Afan and their heirs and assigns, that they may freely, quietly, well, in peace and without any molestation, gather timber for house-building and fencing in all the woods of my men who hold them from me.

They shall also have common pasture, freely, quietly, well and in peace for ever, in all places, woods, meadows, grazing meadows and pastures, in the open season, upon my land. And also that pasture on the side of the Dinas which is between Karnwendrech and a place that is called Kaekedrech in length, and in breadth between the arable land of Tyrruskech as far as the arable land upon the Dinas, at all times of the year.

And if it should happen that I or my heirs or assigns should put a fence around any land and the said fence were to be broken down by the animals of the said burgesses and censers, they are obliged to rebuild that fence once more.

And also they shall have common pasture in the open season in all the woods, meadows, grazing grounds and pastures of my men who hold them from me whatever rank they may be.

Moreover, for this gift, grant and confirmation of my present charter my aforesaid burgesses and censers have given me forty shillings sterling.

And because I wish that this my gift, grant and the confirmation of my present charter should have perpetual force and effect, I have ratified this present charter with the impression of my seal.

With these witnesses: Lord Thomas, then abbot of Margam, Eynon, rector of the church of Afan, Henry the clerk, then steward of Afan, Rees ap Morgan, Rees ap Cradoc and many others.

Andrew Dulley

Assistant County Archivist

Notes

1. Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales (Second Edition) (London, 1850)

2. J. O’Brien, Old Afan and Margam (Aberavon, 1926), p. 69

Archives

Charter of Leysan ap Avan to Aberafan, reference B/A 1