How our genealogist solved the mystery of long-lost portraits found in an attic in Shropshire attic
Athena Ancestry’s expertise in genealogy and family history were put to an unusual use this month. We were asked to solve the mystery of how portraits of the Williams family of Pencoed Castle, Llanmartin in Monmouthshire ended up in a Shropshire attic. Researching the Williams’ family tree solved the puzzle.
Paintings specialist Abigail Molenaar from Halls Fine Art Auctioneers of Shropshire was contacted about a set of portraits discovered in an attic following a house sale. It turns out that the paintings, found in an undisclosed location near Ludlow, depicted several generations of the Williams family of Pencoed Castle in Llandevaud Monmouthshire.
Abigail contacted local history groups in the area seeking information that might help to identify the portraits’ sitters and explain how the paintings ended up in Shropshire. One of the group’s members knew our genealogist, Michael Edwards. So they put him in touch with Abigail. In a remarkable coincidence, one of the portraits was one of his great-great aunt Margaret (Rosser) Williams (1826-1902). Michael worked out the collateral lines of her family tree to solve the puzzle.
The Williamses of Pencoed Castle
The genealogy research identified that there were four generations of Williamses in the paintings. They were of Margaret Sr., her eldest daughter Amelia (1844-1929), her granddaughter Margaret Jr. (1880-1969) and an unknown infant child. The chart below shows how they were related. Margaret Sr. farmed at Pencoed Castle until she retired in 1895. The estate then moved out of the Williams family for the first time since the turn of the century. Margaret went to live with her widowed daughter Amelia in Undy, Monmouthshire.
How did the paintings end up in Shropshire?
Our research discovered that Margaret’s son, Thomas Williams, moved his family to farm in Herefordshire and then to Shropshire in the 1880s. His branch of the Williams family settled there. Thomas’ daughter Margaret Elizabeth Williams, one of the people in the portraits, married Frederick Roger Brookes in 1912. Frederick and Margaret lived at Arksely farm in Bridgnorth where they raised their family. In later life, the couple moved to Brook Cottage, Oldfields where Margaret died in 1869 and Thomas ten years later.
Who painted them?
Abigail says the paintings date to the early 1900’s and were painted by the same person in a folk art style. The initials TBB can be seen on one painting and BB on another. These seem to match Thomas Bernard Brookes, son of Frederick and Margaret. Following newspaper articles in the Shropshire Star and South Wales Argus, by a descendant of the Brookes family. contacted Athena Ancestry. He was looking for some help tracing his family tree but also knew that Bernard, as he was known, was an amateur artist and wood carver. Another mystery solved.
Williamses of Pencoed Castle, Llanmartin, Monmouthshire
There has been a castle at Pencoed, Llanmartin since the 13th century. By about 1470 it was owned by the Morgans of Tredegar and it remained in their family until 1701. Pencoed passed through several hand until it was bought by Thomas and James Perry in 1817. By this time the increasingly dilapidated castle was leased to farmers. Enter the Williams family. Thomas Williams (1780-1851) farmed Pencoed and this passed to his son George (1814-188). George married Margaret Rosser in 1844 in Penhow. They went on to have 12 children including Amelia and Thomas. Margaret was the portrait sitter. And the rest, as they say, is history….or genealogy.
