Monday, March 24, 2008

Sir Charles Edwards, A Radnorian Chief Whip

The Ancestry sites seem to be in dispute with the banks over direct debits, all of which means that I can't use them at the moment. This is all a bit frustrating, although something of a money saver. Take Sir Charles Edwards for example, who knew that this Chief Whip and long-serving MP for Bedwellty was born and raised in the Radnorshire parish of Llangynllo. It would be interesting to check out his background in the various censuses, so if anyone does have an Ancestry account and wants to look him up, please post your findings in the comments here.


3 comments:

nesh larpin said...

Taken from the 1871 census
EDWARDS John, h, m, 40, ag lab, RAD Llangynllo, Crungoed Cottage,
EDWARDS Catherine, w, m, 37,, RAD Heyope, Crungoed Cottage,
EDWARDS William, s,, 11,, RAD Llangynllo, Crungoed Cottage,
EDWARDS Richard, s,, 7,, RAD Llangynllo, Crungoed Cottage,
EDWARDS Thomas, s,, 5,, RAD Llangynllo, Crungoed Cottage,
EDWARDS Charles, s,, 3,, RAD Llangynllo, Crungoed Cottage,
EDWARDS Martha, d,, 2,, RAD Llangynllo, Crungoed Cottage,

As you can see Charles lived at the old Crungoed Cottage which was just 60 good radnor yards from my front door, now just a few stones remain but the garden is still visible and used. This information has been verified by my good father-in-law who's own father was very taken with him when he spoke at Gravel Chapel in the early fifties.

John Edwards was a farm worker at the Crungoed and once Charles left school at 12 went to work at Lower Sign, Llanddewi.

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for this info Mr Larpin, expect you're looking forward to the warmer weather.

By the way Bedwellty only ever had three MPs in the 65 years or so it returned members to Westminster, Charles Edwards, Harold Finch and Neil Kinnock.

Tim Edwards said...

Just stumbled across this.

My family are all from Radnorshire/ West Herefordshire but Sir Charles is the only one we've found who became famous! My father (who's still alive) remembers meeting him at a family gathering.

My grandmothers side (Williams) are all from Old Radnor. I persuaded my dad to do a You Tube video on them a couple of years ago.

Tim Edwards
tim@westwoodlodge.co.uk