His Ferryside aunts and uncles
Ferryside is a small village in Carmarthenshire, west Wales, that sits quietly on the estuary of the river Tywi as it flows down to the sea from the town of Carmarthen. Much of the village developed from the mid-nineteenth century, when it was linked in 1852 to both Carmarthen and Swansea by rail. Its fortunes have been tied to the sea and tidal waters, with both seine net fishing and cockling having once been important.
I have described in the main paper on this site how Dylan, as a boy, stayed in Ferryside with some of his mother's cousins. Later in life, he visited the village from Swansea by train and from Laugharne by boat, usually to have a drink in the White Lion. Both Richard Hughes and Billy Williams of Laugharne have described the “wild, marauding expeditions” that Dylan made by cabin cruiser to Ferryside. In September 1939, Dylan wrote to Vernon Watkins inviting him “to go over to Ferryside and get silly." [i]
Looking down on the village, with Llansteffan and its castle in the background on the other side of the Tywi estuary.
The White Lion is at the top of the square; the next white building is Cloth Hall, a common enough name in Wales that appears in Under Milk Wood. The shop across the road is the Dorothy cafe and newsagent with the Ship Inn/Hotel next door. On its left, is Grongar House, presumably named after Grongar Hill, which also appears in Under Milk Wood. (1925)
The story of Dylan’s Ferryside relations starts with Amy Williams (b.1847), the daughter of Thomas and Anne Williams of Waunfwlchan farm, Llansteffan, who were Dylan’s maternal great-grandparents. Amy was Dylan’s great-aunt, but she would have played little part in his upbringing because she died in 1917.
In 1866, the teenage Amy had a baby daughter, Anne. The father was Amy’s brother-in-law, George Williams who was married to her older sister, Hannah, Dylan’s maternal grandmother. [ii]
Three years later, in 1869, Amy married Herbert Jones of Llandyfaelog, a farmer/publican, and had two children, Margaret and William. After Jones’ death a few years later, she married again in May 1882 to Capt David Jones, and they lived at Alpha House in Eva Terrace, Ferryside.[iii]
David Jones was born in 1854, the son of a master mariner, Edwin, and his wife Eliza(?). Known as Dai Pilot, Jones was one of the most accomplished of Carmarthen Bay pilots. He had also, since the age of 18, been a member of the Ferryside lifeboat. He had been awarded a Silver Medal by the Norwegian King for the rescue in March 1901 of the Australia, a Norwegian ship carrying coal which had been driven ashore between Laugharne and Pendine in a severe gale. It took two and a half hours "of extremely difficult rowing" just to reach the vessel. [iv]
Jones rescued another Norwegian ship, the Signe, in March 1905 from Cefn Sidan sands, in a gale so wild that the Burry Port lifeboat had failed to reach the wreck: "The Cefn was a fury of waters, boiling with the incensate anger of wind and sea." This time, Jones received the Silver Medal from the RNLI.
On October 30 1925, whilst 71 years of age, he was coxswain on another successful rescue from the sands of the SV Paul, a German ship loaded with timber, driven onto the sands in a severe storm and thick fog. The lifeboat, under sail, reached the Paul in difficult conditions, only to be told that eleven of the crew had taken to a small boat. Jones set off in the fog, and found them a mile away drifting out to sea. After taking them on board, he returned to the Paul and took off the remaining five crew members. "When about to sail for the shore there was a slight delay, as Capt. Bade suddenly remembered that a favourite pet of his -a canary - was left aboard, and one of the men promptly boarded the wreck and brought the bird safely along to its owner." [v]
2. Three crew members of the Paul, with the stewardess holding the canary cage.
3. David Jones with the lifeboat crew
The old lifeboat station
David Jones had been a member of the Ferryside lifeboat crew for fifty-six years, of which thirty-six had been as its coxswain or, from 1891, its chief coxswain.[vi]
He was also a very successful competitor in local regattas with his boat Alice Marie. It is said that he was also a pilot at Cowes for Sir Dudley Williams Drummond of Hafodneddlyn, Llandeilo (the Drummonds did send flowers to Jones' funeral). He was certainly at Cowes at the time of the 1881 census, crewing on board the Flying Fish for Richard Llewellyn Williams. Jones was also a prominent figure in the local Freemasons.
David Jones died on December 8 1927. Florence, Dylan’s mother, was amongst the mourners, as were a large number of Llangain relatives, as well as several from Pontardulais. [vii]
Amy and David Jones had four children, all born in the 1880s: Bess, Bal, Sal, and Tom. They were, of course, first cousins to Dylan’s mother, Florence, and old enough to be counted amongst Dylan’s many aunts and uncles. Here's the family tree, followed by the 1891 census, including William Rees Jones, Amy's son from her first marriage:
Bess (1883-1919) is said to have studied music, and played the piano for Queen Victoria. She married Henry (Harry) Hall in 1906, a submariner, and they lived in Southsea. Their son Oswald was born in 1907 and joined the Navy in 1923. Their daughter, Irene, b.1909, lived in Ferryside after her mother’s death in 1919; in 1927 she became a student nurse in the naval hospital in Gosport. There she met and married John Smithers Howell, a former sailor, and they lived on the south coast. From 1955, they ran a newsagent’s shop and hairdresser’s on Port Tennant Road, Swansea, before moving to Norfolk Street and then Townhill.
Bal (1884-1955) was a dressmaker. She was a close friend of Dylan’s mother, Florence, her first cousin, who was two years older than her. Bal married another cousin, Alf Williams, and they ran a wallpaper shop in Pontardulais.
Their son Allan was born about 1924. See John and Thomas 2010 for more on Bal and Alf, and Allan’s friendship with Dylan. The family tree showing the descent of Dylan’s Pontardulais relations from Thomas and Anne Williams of Waunfwlchan is shown in Note 28 at https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomaspontardulais/home/dylan-and-the-bont
Sal (1887-1947) worked for a milliner in Carmarthen. She inherited Alpha House, Ferryside, after her father died in 1927, and she lived there until her own death in 1947 after being knocked down by a hit-and-run driver. She married Harry Williams, a railway ganger, in 1940. There were no children.
Tom (1889-c1950) worked first as an assisting pilot, presumably with his father. He then ran a newsagent’s shop in Ferryside, the Dorothy Café, next to the Ship Inn, and across the road from the White Lion.
In 1925, Tom married Beatrice Alice Morton (b.1900), who was originally from Derbyshire, the daughter of a bricklayer, John Morton (1872-1937) and his wife Martha (1871-1953), who came to Ferryside from Derbyshire via Stevenage (1911 census).
Stanford-ffoulkes (2004) describes Beatrice as a prison warder who was present at the hanging of Edith Thompson in 1922. This is almost certainly incorrect – see Note 26 in the main paper. Tom and Beatrice had a son, Raymond (1927-2009), who worked on the railways, and then took over the shop. He married Iris Griffiths of Gorslas. Raymond was a first cousin of Allan Williams of Pontardulais, and a second cousin to Dylan. Raymond and Iris had two children, Patricia and Lynn.
With many thanks to Gail and Lynn Jones, and Beryl Hughes.
Notes
[i] Dylan’s drinking in the White Lion is described by Stanford-ffoulkes 2004, who is a descendent of Amy and David Jones. For more on Dylan and the White Lion and his friendship with its owner Dick Bright, see Hughes 1998. Richard Hughes on Dylan's expeditions: see Graves 1994. In a 1960s interview, Billy Williams of Laugharne also talks of Dylan’s visits to Ferryside – CE/NLW, with an edited version of the interview in Thomas 2004 p188. Letter to Vernon Watkins: September 29 1939.
[ii] Anne Williams 1866-1922. The source of the information that George Williams was Anne’s father was Anne’s daughter, Doris, in an interview with Colin Edwards in the 1960s: “Dylan was my cousin, mother and Dylan’s mother Auntie Florrie being sisters.” Off tape, Doris told Edwards that George Williams, Florence’s father, was also the father of her mother Anne. George had married Hannah Williams, Florence’s mother, in 1860. Hannah’s younger sister, Amy, gave birth to Anne in 1866. See pp 182-185 and Note 52 on p.290 in Thomas (2003).
After her mother, Amy, moved to Llandyfaelog c1869 and then to Ferryside, Anne seems to have lived with her grandparents at Waunfwlchan, because she is shown there on the 1871, 1881 and 1891 census returns. She had a daughter, Gladys (1885-1893), father unknown (Gladys' death certificate confirms Anne was the mother). Anne’s first marriage in 1891 was to local gentry, John Gwyn of Plas Cwrthir, Llangain, and they had a son, Thomas, on whom see Thomas 2004 pp21-23. Gladys died at Plas Ucha, Llanybri, in March 1893, as did John Gwyn three months later. Anne then married her cousin, Robert Williams of Waunffort, Llangain, and they had William and Doris. Anne’s two sons, Thomas Gwyn and William Williams, died before Dylan was three. On Dylan’s holidays with Anne at Rose Cottage, Llansteffan, see Ocky Owen, p41 and Doris Fulleylove p42 in Thomas 2003. Anne and her children were at Rose Cottage in 1911, and she and her husband, Robert Williams, were there on the Register of Electors for 1918 and 1919. At some later point, Anne moved to Forest House, Brigstocke Tce., Ferryside, where she wrote her Will, leaving a net estate of £83,000; she died there in May 1922.
After Anne’s death, Doris lived in 5, Cwmdonkin Drive until her marriage in 1928 to Randy Fulleylove.
The story in Stanford-ffoulkes 2004 that the 15-year old Anne had first been betrothed to, and made pregnant by, John Gwyn’s father, described by Stanford-ffoulkes as a widower in his fifties, seems most unlikely, not least because he was never a widower but pre-deceased his wife by several years. For more on Anne see Thomas 2003 pp184-185 and Thomas 2004 pp21-23, 25.
[iii] Margaret b1871 seems to have died very young. William b1876 can be seen on the Waunfwlchan census return for 1881 with Amy. He was also working at Pen-y-coed in 1911 for Amy's brother John Williams. William also appears on the 1891census return for David and Amy Jones's family at Ferryside. Stanford-ffoulkes (2004) has various stories about William.
In his 2003 biography of Dylan, Andrew Lycett indicates (p 45) that he is aware of the story, as he puts it, that George Williams had fathered a love child, Anne, by his wife's sister, Amy. But in his family tree he has David Jones as Anne's father. Lycett writes that Amy and David had been having an affair and that they did not marry at the time of Anne's birth because David was already married. This is wrong on two counts. David Jones was only 12 at the time of Anne's birth; and when he married Amy in 1882 at the age of 28 he was a bachelor, as the wedding certificate shows. For more on George and Amy, including testimony from Anne’s daughter, Doris, see Thomas 2004 p25.
[iv] The report of the rescue of the Australia is in The Carmarthen Weekly Reporter, April 5 1901, at https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3645404/3645405/1/Australia.
[v] The report of the Paul is in the Carmarthen Journal, November 6 1925.
[vii] For more on Jones and the lifeboat, see D. Gerald Jones, 1978.
[vii] The funeral report is in the Carmarthen Journal, December 16 1927.
References
R.P. Graves (1994) Richard Hughes, Deutsch.
B. Hughes (1998) The Cat’s Whiskers, Hughes
D. John and D. N. Thomas (2010) From Fountain to River: Dylan Thomas and the Bont, in Cambria, autumn issue. It’s also athttps://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomaspontardulais/home/dylan-and-the-bont
D. Gerald Jones (1978) Introducing Ferryside, Gomer
R. Stanford-ffoulkes (2004) Dylan – the Cousin
D.N.Thomas (2003) Dylan Remembered 1914-1934 vol.1, Seren