John Williams

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John Williams was the father of Mary… … read more

John Williams was the father of Mary Williams. He took over Great House Farm on his father’s death in 1908, holding the house parcel under the Thomas arrangement of 1877 and the fields under the 1916 Bute tenancy and the 1939 WGR tenancy. In 1928 he paid the last rent to the Thomases and thereafter “regarded the farm as his own”. From 1944 his son-in-law Frederick Buckler ran the farm as his manager, and in 1949 his tenancy of the fields was surrendered. He was still alive and “very ill” in the early 1950s; the date of his death is not yet known.

Method and evidence key: Main Page · title test

Chronology

1877 — a Bute counterpart lease to a John Williams, 6 November 1877, is at Glamorgan Archives; whether it is to Mary’s grandfather is not yet established (1877 agreement)
1908 — his father dies; he takes over the farm (below)
1916 — yearly tenancy of the whole farm from Bute, February 1916 (1916 tenancy)
1924/1928 — HM Land Registry holds a record of 15 May 1924 (a Bute–Corbett agreement about a drain); 1928 last rent to Alfred Thomas, about £4 a year (1928). Whether the 1924 record is connected is one of the questions the family is pressing HM Land Registry to answer (Legal Review, section 2).
1936 — his daughter Mary marries Frederick Buckler (marriage)
1938 — Bute’s interest passes to Western Ground Rents (1938)
1939 — revised WGR tenancy, May 1939; its plan shows the fields only (1939 tenancy · plan). The tenancy agreement and plan are also catalogued here as GHF-E012-07/08, location given as Leckwith Archives, Cardiff (Glamorgan Archives).
1944–49 — War Agricultural Committee; Frederick as manager; tenancy surrendered (below)
Date unknown — death (below)

1908: Takes over the farm

Evidence: Mary Williams’s statement (extract) · catalogue GHF-E012-02

Certificate Death record, Mary’s grandfather, 1908

Placeholder: to be obtained

Catalogue: GHF-E014-04

Location: Not yet established from the present record

Evidence description: “In the year 1908 my grandfather died and my father took over the farm.” (Mary’s statement.) Her grandfather had held tenancies from both Bute and Daniel Thomas since the 1877 sale.

‹A + B as one ›He took over both holdings: the house parcel from the Thomases (Parcel A) and the fields from Bute (Parcel B).

1944 – 1949: The War Agricultural Committee, illness and surrender of the tenancy

Evidence: Mary Williams’s statement (extract) · catalogue GHF-E012-09

Evidence description: “During the war my father had difficulty in farming the land to the satisfaction of the War Agricultural Executive Committee, owing to his age and in 1944 it was arranged that my husband should give up his job and run the farm as Manager for my father.” He was still alive and “very ill” in the early 1950s.

Evidence: Court of Appeal judgment, 1987

Evidence description: he fell into arrears; his tenancy was surrendered and “a new yearly agricultural tenancy commencing at February 2 1949” was to be granted to his son-in-law, Frederick Buckler.

Parcel BThe farming, the arrears and the surrendered tenancy all concern the fields held under the 1939 tenancy (Parcel B). He had no tenancy of the house parcel to surrender.

Date unknown: Death

Certificate Death certificate, John Williams (date not yet known)

Placeholder: to be obtained from the General Register Office

Catalogue: GHF-E012-11

Location: Family archive / privately held material

What it will record: the date and place of John Williams’s death. Mary’s statement says that after his death “my husband and I continued to occupy it”.

Parcel AOn his death the house parcel (Parcel A) passed to Mary; no probate or will has yet been traced.

See also: Mary Williams · Mary Williams’s… … read more