MARY MACNAMARA 

 

Life and marriage to John Macnamara was a

rollercoaster starting in GretnaGreen and

heading to Grwyne Fechan,via high society

and Llangoed Hall. Helen Morgan reports:   

   

 

 

 

Most walkers in the Black Mountains know the name through the Macnamara myths, or by coming across the ruins of the Hermitage near Llanbedr. In December 1779 John had asked Mary’s father, Arthur, a fellow barrister at Lincolns Inn Court, for permission to marry his 19-year-old daughter and only child. Her mother was already dead and Arthur died a month later without giving consent, leaving Mary as a ward of court. The couple decided not to wait for Mary to turn 21 or obtain legal permission to marry. A week after her father’s funeral they eloped to Gretna Green. Mary had certainly fallen for a man about town who had been in the news in April 1779. As he escorted a famous actress from Covent Garden  she was shot by a stalker. John often described that melodramatic scene: the sudden assault of the assassin, the instantaneous death of the victim and the spattering of the poor girl’s brains over his own face.

In 1796, John and Mary Macnamara bought the Llangoed estate, which stretched from Llyswen in Brecknockshire south through the Black Mountains to the upper Grwyne Fechan and Grwyne Fawr valleys. By this time they had four children and were part of fashionable society. They then divided their time between London and Wales, although Mary was more often at Llangoed than John, seemingly preferring to superintend the estate over parties and her husband’s company. As she wrote to one of her granddaughters when John had been dead 12 years: “Mac adored me, loved his children to a weakness, was the kindest and had no selfish expenses. Yet amidst all these good qualities his giving way to an impetuous temper marred everything he undertook.”

When John died in 1818, aged 63, he left the estate in trust to his male heirs but gave Mary and eldest son  joint responsibility for the estate, thus ensuring that Mary had a formal and legal role to play. Mary was often out and about on the estate, especially in the Grwyne Fechan valley in the 1820s and early 1830s when major renovation work was done on The Hermitage. She was particularly interested in that far-flung corner of the estate, used as a hunting lodge and family weekend picnics.

This article is based on primary research by Mirian Griffiths published by Ewyas Lacy Research Group. The lecture season resumes on September 9th. For details see the Talks page.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This MontH

 

Mary Macnamara :  reproduced with thanks

to the descendents of the Dickens family.