Robert Richards born abt 1788 (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Sunday, July 29, 2012, 22:15 (4495 days ago) @ Roger Griffiths

Hi again Jenny

Re your "Monmouth St John" birthplace for Robert.

When I first read your post I assumed this referred to a Parish church, ie a Church dedicated to St John, in Monmouth town itself. However looking across some Monmouthshire FH and Church sites etc I cannot find such a church, although I do find a St Mary's Church there. However I find there is a part of Monmouth town called St John's Street, which is very old indeed eg see the Location Map on this site
http://www.thecoachhousemonmouth.co.uk/index.html

Please can you clarify if this is perhaps where we're looking, I guess you maybe got this name from a Census form ???. I ask as there are some Baptisms available f-o-c online for Monmouthshire parishes but where to start looking....

Later Update: there is a St John's at Buckholt, a tiny hamlet just north of Monmouth town. However this Church wasn't built until 1889 so ??. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckholt,_Monmouthshire

I now wonder if by Monmouth we actually mean MonmouthSHIRE in general ?. If your info comes from Census forms then that's often not specific. I did lookup LDS and recall seeing Monmouth quoted as birthplace, I think it was the 1861 Census so some years after the event and perhaps not too precise ?.

As expected this list shows there are more St John's Churches in the county as a whole if not the town itself.
http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/monmouth/admin/buildings/DAC/FacultyRegisterNos.html

So, if you can please confirm your source wrt born Monmouth St John, thanks.

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I see from the earlier post Robert enlisted with the Brecon Militia at Llandilo in 1812.
Why was he there ?. Where is it ?.

Looking up Llandilo (actually Llandeilo) I see it's in Carmarthenshire which I think of as far West Wales, however Llandeilo is at the east of that county and on the very western edge of the Brecon Beacons national park, so making sense wrt Brecon Militia.
This map clearly shows the old counties of Wales, and Llandeilo too.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geogdata/ngw/map.htm

The Genuki site gives a highly detailed & interesting description of the town written in 1867
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/CMN/LlandeiloFawr/LlandeiloPast.html

This states that the town Church is St Teilo, built 1851, but "By far the larger proportion of the parishioners is Nonconformist, and every sect has one or more chapels in different parts of the district."
Within the district was and still is the church of St John at nearby Maesteilo, is it possible this is "our" birthplace ??.
see
http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/rb/par.php?dosommat=detail&which=595
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/CMN/LlandeiloFawr/index.html

This reminds me that when I searched Robert Richards born abt 1788 on LDS and Ancestry yesterday, most of the hits were for Welsh counties, not "English" counties such as Monmouthshire (which is of course Wales but.....).
However it must be said most of those LDS PRs were for north/mid Wales such as Montgomeryshire, altho there are a few from Carmarthenshire as follows:

1-3 of 3 results for >Name: richards, b abt 1788, Batch Number: C100721

Mary Richards
Wales, Births and Baptisms, 1541-1907
birth: 10 Jun 1777 LANEDI NEWHOUSE INDEPENDENT,​LLANEDY,​CARMARTHEN,​WALES
parents: Richard Prince

Richards
Wales, Births and Baptisms, 1541-1907
birth: 14 Nov 1779 LANEDI NEWHOUSE INDEPENDENT,​LLANEDY,​CARMARTHEN,​WALES
parents: Richard John,​ Catharine

Richards
Wales, Births and Baptisms, 1541-1907
birth: 09 Apr 1804 LANEDI NEWHOUSE INDEPENDENT,​LLANEDY,​CARMARTHEN,​WALES
parents: Richard David,​ Mary

Llanedi is midway between Llanelli & Ammanford, so a few miles from Llandeilo. ???
That said, searching Ancestry shows an awful lot of Robert Richards baptisms for abt 1788, a very common name, so ???????

I guess searching brother Stephen's birthplace in parallel will hopefully help tie things down. Hopefully those members of the forum with more skill & wisdom than me may be able to guide you more accurately. However please note that as this thread appears to be moving away from the Forest of Dean area, so it's also moving out of the scope of this website.

Good Luck !