The Bute Estate

Events

• Early nineteenth century — DOCUMENTED FACT: the Bute Estate acquires the freehold of Great House, previously the Vaughan family’s chief freehold farm, and the manorial courts for Llandough and Leckwith are held in the house (Great House Farm — earlier history; HER GGAT02038s). How Bute acquired it, and from whom, is UNRESOLVED: unsourced leads (Valentine Morris, Sir Mark Wood, the 1820 Bute–Plymouth exchange, David Stewart’s 1824 survey naming the farm ‘Cedfin’, Lambert Williams’s agreements with Bute in 1818–35) are held on Research Leads from the bpvsbuckler Archive.
• Before 1877 — Mary’s grandfather holds the farm as a Bute tenant and receives notice to quit in 1877 (details; Mary (Nancy) Williams, witness statement c.1974 (Mary (Nancy) Williams testimony)). Priority record to locate: Bute rentals for Llandough, especially 1877–78 (cat. GHF-E016-02). Repository is not established by the material cited here; check NLW, Glamorgan Archives and Cardiff Library finding aids rather than presuming one custodian.
• Unconfirmed 33-acre limeworks lead (claimed c. 1876; event dates unconfirmed) — The Wiki’s preliminary entry associates a D153/4–8 target span with approximately 33 acres (details; cat. GHF-E016-03). The NLW title-deeds list describes the parent file D153/1–8 as deeds relating to Llandough premises, including a dwelling house adjoining the churchyard (D153/1–2, 1811), within a series dated 1811–1912. That catalogue scope makes D153 geographically relevant but does not verify a 33-acre quarrying event, the c. 1876 date, property identity or owner. See SC-21. No Parcel A/B assignment is made pending examination of the individual items and any plan.
• 1877 — Mary (Nancy) Williams’s statement reports a transaction/arrangement involving Daniel Thomas and a lease to John Williams, but the original transaction documents have not been located. No matching 6 November 1877 Llandough lease has been identified [PENDING: EV-0008]. SC-20 records that the physically checked DBDT/79/1 instrument is a 2 May 1877 lease for Pembroke Terrace, Cardiff, while DBDT/18/1 and DBDT/1/3 are catalogue entries for other Cardiff properties. The identity of the named John Williams and the connection to Llandough remain unresolved; do not assign a parcel or describe a Llandough instrument as held until a matching document/plan is verified (1877 account; SC-20).
• 1900 — A research note reports that newspaper coverage of Lord Bute’s will referred to Llandough land passing to his son Lord Colum [PENDING: EV-0012]. The specific article and clause have not been verified for this land; an inheritance would be an intermediate succession event, not by itself a break in the chain. Test the will/probate against the 23 February 1905 conveyance and the 1938 Bute–WGR deed (Land Registry documents; New Archival Leads, §8.2).
• 1905 — Bute conveyance of 23 February 1905, recorded on the woodland title WA735527, whose plans were not supplied on first registration (details; woodland). Parcel allocation remains unconfirmed. The current register-based reading suggests rights over land Bute retained and may relate to Parcel B; the conveyance and plan must be read before allocating it to Parcel A or B. Documents: register WA735527, title plan (cat. GHF-E016-07 to -09).
• 1916 — yearly agricultural tenancy of the “whole farm” to John Williams, February 1916 (details) [PENDING: EV-0014]
• 1938 — reversion on the 1916 tenancy conveyed to WGR; the family holds the deed and its plan, which was never produced in court (details; cat. GHF-E016-12) [PENDING: EV-0019]

Cross-reference — Cedwyn Estate working theory: Because this estate-history page discusses Bute landownership, it is relevant to the Cedwyn Estate hypothesis as a chain-of-title research source. Records of Bute ownership or conveyance may be evidence of the transactions recorded, but do not alone prove illegality, a broader estate identity or deliberate parcel capture. See the Cedwyn Estate Working Theory.