The sound is gone forth—all the land is awake,
Swords flash in the valley, and spears in the brake;
And, gleaming in arms, at their head ye discern
The fearless in battle—bold Guy of Laugharne!”
Laugharne, the subject of our present notice. The ancient appellation of this town and castle, according to the native writers, appears to have been Llacharn, and seems to have taken its present orthography from the general of that name—William Laughearne—who distinguished himself in the service of the “Parliament;” and in 1644, after a siege of three weeks, took the Castle of “Llacharn.” Its still more ancient name is Abercoran, or Cowan—the “Castle on the banks of the Coran”—which, at a short distance below the Castle, empties itself into the sea. Local tradition says that the parish church formerly stood upon a farm, in an island called Craseland—that is, Christ’s-land; but of the sacred edifice, not a vestige remains to support the tradition—
“Not an arch of nave or aisle—
Not a relic marks the pile;
Shrine and monumental stone,
Floor and fretted vault are gone!”
The Corporation consists of a portreeve, a recorder, an indefinite number of aldermen, two common attorneys, four constables, and seventy-six burgesses, who have shares in lands and commons which were given to the Corporation by “Sir Guido de Brian the younger, lord marcher of the said town and lordship of Laugharne,” in the reign of King John. “His cloak or mantle,” says Carlisle, “richly embroidered in purple and gold, is still preserved in the parish church.” Laugharne, as described by a recent tourist, is one of the neatest and cleanest of the smaller towns of South Wales. It has many excellent dwelling-houses, a good inn for the accommodation of travellers, and possessing various local attractions and a cheap market, many private families have made choice of it as a residence which unites pleasure and economy. The situation is low and sheltered—bounded by the tidal estuary and the Taff, which, at low water, presents a wide extent of dry land—an amphibious territory, which the inconstant sea alternately invades and deserts.
Guy de Brian—The founder of this name, and his successors, were all in their day knights of military renown. Their chief seat was in these marches, where, in the 29th Henry III., the first Guy received command to assist the Earl of Gloucester in suppressing some new insurrection in the country. Toward the close of the same reign, he had summons to attend the king at Chester—well fitted with horse and arms—to “prevent the incursions of that unruly people.” But not long after this, when the breach betwixt the king and divers of the great barons happened, he adhered unto them; for it appears that, after the battle of Lewes, where the king was made prisoner by the barons, he was constituted by them governor of the Castles of Cardigan and Kaermerdyn [or Carmarthen], which commission was renewed the next ensuing year; he having then also the like trust granted unto him by them for the Castle of Kilgaran. But shortly after, when the battle of Evesham “had quelled the power of those haughty spirits, he became one of the sureties for Robert de Vere, then Earl of Oxford, that he should thenceforth demean himself peaceably, and stand to the decree called ‘Dictum de Kenilworth,’ for the redemption of his lands.”
Guy of Laugharne married Eve, daughter and heir of Henry de Traci, and dying in the 31st Edward I. left a son—then in his twenty-fourth year—named also Guy, who being a knight, in the 4th of Edward III., was made governor of the Castle of Haverford. “But it was found by inquisition, that he complained to the King that Roger de Mortimer, late Earl of March, had made seizure of his Barony of Walwaynes Castle, in the Co. Pemb., as also of the goods and stock thereon, and had delivered them to Guyon his son without warranty. Likewise that the king then took notice of certain differences betwixt the said Sir Guy and the same Guyon, his son and heir, which were pacified in his presence, by the assent of Wenthlian his wife, in regard that himself, at the time, was not of sane memory. Moreover, that by this agreement the Barony of Chastel-Walweyn was to remain to young Guyon and his heirs, on condition that he should be obliged to prefer his two sisters out of the revenues thereof: As also that two hundred pounds which Ioan de Carru was bound to pay to him, the said Guy, for the marriage of his son Guyon, should be paid to Guyon towards the marriage of those his sisters. And that because the said Sir Guy was not in his perfect senses, the barony should remain in the king’s hands, and livery thereof be made to Guyon in performance of those covenants.” Sir Guy being thus out of his senses—“I come,” says the Chronicle, “to
“Guy, his son, who was in the Scottish wars, and in consideration of his special services had an annuity of forty pounds granted to him by the king, to be paid out of the Exchequer during his life. In the 15th Edw. III. he was made governor of St. Briavell’s, in Co. Gloc., and warden of the Forest of Dene; and, in the following year, was again in the wars of France. So likewise in the 19th and 20th, but died June 17, in the 23d of the same reign, being then seized of Tallughern in the marches of Wales, which he held by the service of finding two soldiers with horses harnessed; or eight footmen—according to the custom of those parts—for three days at his own proper cost, upon notice given by the king’s bayliffe of Kaermerdyn [Carmarthen].”
Guy, his son and heir, was at the time of his father’s demise turned thirty years of age, and became a person of very great note in his time. He was standard-bearer to the King in that notable fight with the French at Calais, 23d Edw. III.; and there behaving himself with great courage and valour, had, in recompense thereof, a grant of two hundred merks per annum out of the Exchequer during his life, He obtained a charter for free-warren in all his demesne lands, as well as at Tallughern, &c.; and being still governor of St. Briavell’s, and warden of Dene Forest, he had a grant of all the profits and emoluments arising out of the market and fairs in that town. He was also constituted one of the commissioners for arraying men in the counties of Oxon and Berks, for defence of the realm against the French, who then threatened an invasion. But as our limits will not admit of our giving his public services in detail, we shall merely record them as they were successively performed in the same brilliant reign:—He was, with Henry, Duke of Lancaster, sent on an embassy to the Pope: attending the King in France, he was made a banneret: he was again in the same war, and sent a second time to Rome: afterwards pensioned anew for his services: made admiral of the King’s fleet, then acting against the French, and constituted, the year following, admiral of the Royal fleet from Southampton westwards: employed in the Scottish wars: associated with the Earl of Warwick and others to cause “satisfaction to be done by the King’s subjects to the Scots:” was elected into the most noble Order of the Garter: served again in the wars of France: was appointed one of the commissioners to treat with the Duke of Brittany and Earl of Montfort for a league of friendship with King Richard; and lastly, joined Mortimer, Earl of March, in the expedition into Ireland. This concludes his military services; but while he had proved himself a valiant son of Mars, and a faithful servant of the King, he was a pious son and liberal benefactor of the Church, in witness whereof he “founded a chauntry for four priests, to sing divine service in the chappel of Our Ladye within his mannor of Slapton, Co. Dev., and endowed the same with lands,” &c. He married Elizabeth, daughter of William de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, and widow of Hugh le Despenser the third, and departed this life on Wednesday next after the Feast of the Assumption, 14th Rich. II., leaving Philippa,[407] wife of John Devereux, and Elizabeth, wife of Robert Lovel, daughters of his son Guy, who died in his father’s lifetime, to be his next heirs to the demesne of Laugharne and other baronies.—Dugdale.
