My Welsh ancestors left very little in the historical record requiring me to seek for contemporaneous sources from those who knew them. A wonderful source is the daily diary of the missionary that baptized Elinor Jenkins Vaughan, my 4th Great Grandmother. Elder John Needham kept a detailed diary of his daily travels on his mission in Herefordshire and Monmouthshire in the early 1840s. It is the only record we have of Elinor’s baptism on 17 December 1841 in Llanfoist, Monmouthshire, Wales.
Elder Needham, born 1819 in Leeds, England, was a British convert to Mormonism in 1839. His family was not pleased with his conversion and he lost his employment so he left on a mission for the Church. He maintained contact with his family and slowly they came around and several were converted to come with him to Salt Lake City.
Traveling without purse or scrip, he made contacts with converts and friends who would provide food and shelter as he traveled an amazing route up and over mountains by foot to visit the small branches he established and expanded throughout the border country of Wales and England. One location is confirmed in both his journal and the 1841 British Census that finds him with the Davis Family of Longtown, Herefordshire on June 6. John Needham’s profession is given as “Preacher belonging to the sect called Latter-day Saints.” There is another young man named Thomas Watkin listed who may be a temporary missionary companion of John Needham. More work is required to identify him.
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1841 British Census for Clodock, Longtown, Herefordshire
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The Davis Family were members of the LDS Church. According to Needham’s diary, he baptized them on 30 December 1840. Elder Needham recorded several church meetings held in the Davis home and that William Davis accompanied Elder Needham in some of his travels.
On my recent trip to Britain, I went out to visit the location of the Davis farm. On the 1841 Census, it is named “Penadre.” The names in the border country are often a challenge as the language becomes a jumble of Welsh and English particularly as the dominant English had no interest in properly spelling Welsh. Pen-y-dre, or “top or head of the village” in Welsh sounded like “Penadre” in English. That was close enough even if losing its meaning as right up against Longtown Castle, one of the ancient Norman fortifications intended to intimidate the Welsh and keep them in check.
With a few inquiries at the houses around the castle ruin, I was able to locate Pen-y-dre, the former Davis Family farm.
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Elder Needham would have walked this same muddy lane to arrive at the Davis farmhouse.
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The current occupant informed me that the original house was the portion from the chimney to the right. The escarpment of the Black Mountains is behind the house. On the crest of the mountains, is the Welsh/English border. Elder Needham walked over those mountains to preach and meet with members in Llanthony, a small village high in the mountain valley of Ewyas. He also walked from there to Abergavenny and Llanfoist in Wales.
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The ruins of Longtown Castle are visible from Pen-y-Dre Farm right up against the old relic.
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Looking closely, the diagonal paths up the side of the mountain are still highlighted with snow in late March. These are the routes Elder Needham would have climbed to visit the Saints in Llanthony and beyond.
Sister Catherine Davis and a daughter, Sarah, went to Utah by 1853. Brother William Davis appears to have remained in Herefordshire. Sarah became a plural wife of Samuel Lane Jones whom she divorced in 1863 and then married Charles Edward Shoebridge in 1868. Catherine lived with Sarah in the Salt Lake City 17th Ward on Plum Street, now 4th North. When Catherine Davis died in 1885, the death certificate indicated that she was married. There is no indication that she had further contact with her husband, William Davis.
There is no indication that Sarah had children with either of her husbands. It is not clear that the Davises have any descendants in the United States. Someone cares enough to work on their sources in Family Search. I care because Elder Needham often stayed at the Davis home on his way to visit my family in Llanfoist.
We of course do have some early Mormon sites recreated in almost too-pristine fashion, but generally when you go to a place where something historic happened, life has moved on and it can be hard to imagine what a place looked or sounded or felt like back in the day when the history was happening. Not the case with these landscapes! I’m glad to see overhead utility wiring and I hope lots of other modernization has gone on inside buildings, but the exteriors, the landscapes, make it easy to imagine a young Mormon missionary walking to spread his message in 1841.
And that census entry! That’s so cool!
Thanks! I was so glad to find the place after seeing the 1841 Census. Now I’m trying to figure out “90 Plum Street” in SLC which I think is up on Capitol Hill where 4th North becomes stairs down the hill.
The indifference or hostility to the Welsh language seems particularly stark seeing “Penadre” and “Preacher belonging to the sect called Latter-day Saints” in the same handwriting. So little care taken, and so much, within just a few words.
Very nice, and some hints at how to find information that is not easily found. I was able to find an entry once in Joseph F. Smith’s journal of when he visited the family of my great-great-grandparents in England in 1863.