Monmouthshire

The Usk at Abergavenny

IS MONMOUTHSHIRE IN WALES? (from the Monmouthshire Merlin June 24 1881)

The following statement will be interesting to many readers: it has just appeared in the Metropolis, and it is believed to emanate from a high jndicial source:-

Facts proving that the Principality of Walea legally consists of thirteen counties, viz:- Angletea, Caernarvon, Denbigh, Flint, Merionith, Montgomery, Brecknock, Cardigan, Caermarthen, Glamorgaih Monmouth, Pembroke, and Radnor.

Up to the twenty-seventh year of Henry VIII, there were no statutory enactments as to the division of Wales into Counties. At that time there were eight Shires of "ancient and long time," viz:- Glamorgan, Caermartben, Pembroke, Cardigan, Flint Caernarvon, Angleaea, and Merionith. In that year a Statute was passed which affected, not the Counties above enumerated, bnt that part of Wales which was then known as "The Marches." These "marches" are described in that Act as "Lordship Marchers within the said County or Dominion of Wales, lying between the Shires of Eogland and the Shires of th6 said Country or Dominion of Wales." Be it understood that tbe territory above alluded to was part of the Dominion of Wales, but was that eastern portion of the principality of Wales which lay next to England, the sea being the boundary of Wales on the west.

The object of the Act is declared to be that certain of these Lordship Marchers should be annexed to English Counties, certain other» to Welsh Counties, and "that all the residue of the said Lordshipf Marches, within the said country or dominion of WaIes, shall be severed and divided into certain particular Counties or Shires, that i, to say, the County or Store of Monmouth, the County or Shire of Brecknock, the County or Shire of Radnor, the County or Shire of Montgomery, and the County or Shire of Denbigh."

The only other Act of Henry VIII. in any way affecting the constitution of the Welsh Counties, is that of the thirty-fourth and thirty-fiftlvyear of Henry VIII, which recites that Act of the twenty-seventh year of that King as having created additional divisions in Wales, "that is to say, the Shires of Radnor, Brecknock, Montgomery, and Denbigh, over and besides the Shire of Monmouth." This is the last Act of Henry VIII. with regard to Wales. It is beyond all argument undeniable from these Acts, that the County of Monmouth was legally degned by the t Act of twenty-seventh year of Henry VTI1. out of territory expressly stated to be part of the Dominion of Wales, and was by that Act merely created a County in the territory of Wales, as were also at the same time the Counties of Brecknock, Radnor, Montgomery, and Denbigh and this view is confirmed by the fact that the regulations as to the administration of justice, and the issuing of writs from Westminster, which were enacted by the Act, creating the five new divisions of the principality above described, were, within a few very years, extended by a subsequent Act (1 Edward VI., a 10) to the eight older Counties of Wales.

That any certain exceptional legal enactment may have at any time being applied (or not) to any Borough in the County of Monmouth, is totally irrelevant, and in no way affects the question, inasmuch as no application of, a law can alter a territory or destroy a race. Wales is the part of Great Britain still inhabited by the aboriginal race, and has been so acknowledged and so treated ever since the ancient Britons connned themselves especially to that part of the Kingdom yclept historically and legally Wales, and to attempt to alienate any portion of it is to rob and insult the whole principality.

The above legal statements are extracted from the statute book, and the few remarks appended are for the purpose of rendering the facts clear and distinct to unprofessional readers - so that no one need plead ignorance of the law because they do not belong to the legal profession, or timidly shrink from forming individually. an independent opinion through inability to detect the skilful suppression of those points which the professional advocate of a political party might find it on certain occasions his duty to ignore.
JUSTINIAN.

Abertillery
Shops and children

Grosmont
Images

Skenfrith
Images of village, church and castle.

Tredegar, Monmouthshire
Historical notes.

Monmouthshire - Industrialisation
The mid-nineteenth century saw the emergence of the general manager, particularly as the works became joint-stock concerns.

Monnow Bridge, Monmouth