EDITORIAL PREFACE.
On Thursday 15 February 1894, by appointment of the Mayor
and Corporation of the County Borough of Cardiff, I commenced the
work of examining, arranging and transcribing the Public Records
of the Municipality; and the Corporation having, at an early stage
of my researches, decided to publish the most interesting portion
of their records, I was further entrusted with the duty of editing
the same. The present volumes contain the published outcome of
my labours; and, in laying them before the public, it is necessary to
submit a statement of the system I have followed in preparing the
Records for publication.
The historical manuscripts which bear upon the history of the
town of Cardiff and its immediate neighbourhood are some of them
in the custody of the Town Clerk, Joseph Larke Wheatley, Esq.,
in the strong-room of his office at the Town Hall; others are
among the national collections preserved at the Record Office and
the British Museum, in London; others are in private hands, being
kept in the muniment-rooms of county families. The great majority
of the documents are written either in Latin or English, but a few
are in Norman-French and Welsh. Those which are written in any
language but English, I have translated, and in no such case is the
original printed in these volumes, with the exception of the Municipal
Charters. Where documents have been printed in other languages
than English, in authoritative publications like the Rolls Series, but
no translations of the same have hitherto appeared, I have made
translations and included them in this collection. This is almost
the only case in which printed books have been drawn upon for
material. In every instance my translations have been prepared
with special care to secure accuracy, with which aim I have kept
strictly to the phraseology of the originals, often at the sacrifice of
literary elegance. The Latin of the Charters has been expanded,
for no useful purpose seemed to be served by a reproduction of
their highly technical abbreviations and contractions. In transcribing old English records, however, I have thought it best to retain
all their peculiarities of spelling. Some regret will perhaps be felt
by specialists, that the documents have not in every case been
published in the original languages. It will be seen, however, that
such originals would have had to be accompanied by translations,
if this work was to be rendered acceptable and serviceable to the
general public, and that this would have extended the present publication to a bulk involving a very great expenditure of the ratepayers'
money. A similar answer must be given to any persons who may
wish that this work had embraced every document relating to Cardiff
which possesses any historical or antiquarian interest. It is true
that there exists, at the Town Hall and elsewhere, a mass of
unpublished matter, of greater or lesser degrees of importance, the
printing whereof would make another set of volumes of even greater
bulk than the present series. But it was felt that a line had better
be drawn at those records which possess serious historical value or
special literary interest, or which might be taken as representative
of their respective classes.
Prolixity and irrelevance have been guarded against as much
as possible. Thus, where a long document contains only a brief
reference to Cardiff, the capital title and sectional heading only are
here given above the local reference, which is immediately followed
by the conclusion and signatures &c. of the original.
It has not been thought advisable to exclude references to some
places but little remote from the environs of Cardiff, especially when
such references bear directly upon the history of the Lordship of
Glamorgan and Morganwg, of which Cardiff was the administrative
capital and seat of government. Although the original Borough of
Cardiff is the focus upon which the material in these pages centres,
the same extends more or less to the district comprising all the
following parishes outside the town:—Caerau, Canton, Cogan, Ely,
Lavernock, Leckwith, Lisvane, Llandaff, Llandough, Llanedern,
Llanishen, Penarth, Pentyrch, Radyr, Roath, Rumney, Saint
Fagan's and Whitchurch.
The correct spelling of place-names in my own text has been
a subject of serious concern. It was difficult to decide how far
the same should be influenced by the requirements of the Welsh
language, and how far it was necessary to yield to the progress
of anglicisation. My personal view was that the present was an
opportune occasion for a moderate measure of reform, to be exemplified in such spellings as "Llandaf," "Eley," and "Llandoch." In
the end, however, more prudent counsels prevailed, and it was
decided that the common modern forms should be adhered to.
The time has not yet come for us to save ourselves the trouble
of tacking on a quite superfluous f to the ancient name of our
cathedral city.
Immersed in the successful pursuit of wealth, in aspect modern,
utilitarian and matter-of-fact, glorying in her prodigious recent
growth and prosperity, Cardiff has yet remembered that she is no
new creation, but that she has a history reaching back to remote
antiquity and inscribed upon some of the most venerable scrolls
that have escaped the ravages of Time. These records it has been
my delightful duty to study and transcribe, at the behest of the
Corporation, for the benefit, in the first place, of the present and
future burgesses, and, in the second place, of all whom work or
pleasure invites into the fair fields of our local history.
In these pages the municipal politician may mark the gradual
rise and progress of the Borough's liberties, and the construction
of the machinery of her government. Here the man of business
can follow the slow expansion of Cardiff's commerce, while the
historian will note the almost imperceptible effacement of old race
hatreds and feudal inequalities. The antiquary is enabled to walk,
in imagination, the narrow, cobbled streets of the mediaeval town,
and see the burgesses rush to arms at the sound of the markethouse bell, as some fresh faction-fight breaks out in High Street.
The student of religions will here trace the eternal struggle between
authority and individualism in matters of belief; and even that most
captious of critics, the "general reader," may unearth many a gem of
old-world humour—all the more irresistible from its unconsciousness—and more than one story which is none the less interesting
for being true.
JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.
Cardiff, October, 1898.