Dear colleagues
I hope that you can help me identify several individuals mentioned in "The Letters of Lewis, Richard, William and John Morris (Vol II)" (ed. John H Davies. Aberystwyth: 1909.) Thes quotes below seem to involve the lease for a mine at Coginan/Goginan in Wales in 1760, though it may also be making reference to the Company of Mine Adventurers of England. The Morris brothers wished to keep Coginan/Goginan out of the hands of the London investor Chauncy Townsend.
Pg 220, Richard at London to Lewis : "The Sieur Rea has undertaken ye affair of Coginan, and he is a very proper person to manage it. The last time I saw him he had not seen Cnap, but had found out that ye company had broke up housekeeping and now meet at a tavern, and that Cnap is secretary and all: that some relations of Cnap died lately and left him five or six thousand pounds, so that I suppose he is ye best man among them at present."
Pg 223-4, Lewis at Penbryn to Richard 13 July 1760: "I am glad that Sieur Rea has undertaken the affair with Cnap. He is a very proper person, and now is the time to contract, when Pendref is in confusion with Sion Bole, and is out of town." There are the mentions of Waller, Ball and Davies in several sentences following in Welsh.
"Pendref" is a nickname, most likely Chauncy Townsend. At p. 224 there is a reference to a "Siawnsi Pendref" which the editor identifies as Chauncy Townsend of Swansea. "Pentref" means hamlet. When I put "townhead" into a English-Welsh translator, it comes out as "pen y dref".
I am not sure about the other names; they could also be nicknames.
Can any one suggest the identify of
a) Rea (who in August 1760 becomes very ill when a slowly growing tumour on his neck interferes with swallowing p. 229; he may have been based in London);
b) Cnap (who just came into a lot of money; possibly also based in London);
c) Bole: I thought it might be John Ball, who was serving as one of Townsend's agents in Wales. However, my google translate suggests that "ball" translates into "Pel";
d) Pel: this could be John Ball or one of the Powells.
Yours Richard VandeWetering
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