With thanks to Heather June WILLIAMS and the Ancestry web site, a fabulous photograph of my great grandfather, George Hatfield HARRIS and his siblings has turned up. The occasion was the visit of the eldest brother, William, who had emigrated to Pennsylvania with his family some years previously. Clicking on the photo will open the hi-res (1.2Mb) version.
An essay titled "Family Hearsay" was published to the Ancestry web site in 2009 by Heather June RAMSAY...
In 1845 Charles HARRIS moved to Pontymister Farm, Risca, Monmouthshire, as bailiff for the Banks family, who owned the Pontymister Tinplate Works. When the Banks went bankrupt in the mid 1850s, he took a lease of the farm from the freeholders, Tredegar Estate, and ran it himself until 1890, when he handed it over to his youngest son, Alfred (1861-1942. He was a very well known farm valuer and arbitrator, known universally as Harris the Farm (See 1920s article by I Kyrle Fletcher, South Wales Argus).
His son Charles, born 5th.April 1850, was something of a high liver, got involved in some heavy gambling, and forged a cheque for £400 in his fathers name. (They had the same first name). Charles (Senior) could not cover the cheque, and was at risk of losing the farm. he went to his old friend and former employer, Fred Jones of Marshfield, and obtained a loan against the security of his lease, to meet the debt. At some later stage, his son Alfred, managed to repay the debt, and the farm was again secure.
The family continued to run the farm, acquiring the freehold c. 1948, the owners being Alfred's son, Reginald, and grandson Brian, until it was demolished in 1980 for the construction of the Risca bypass road.
There is a family story that in 1839, at the time of the Chartist Riots (the nearest thing that Britain has had to a revolution, but which actually turned out to be a non-event, except for a march on Newport, Monmouthshire, which resulted in some 30 dead after a shoot-out at the Westgate Hotel, Westgate Street, Newport), one of the family had their house searched for arms. This appears to have a ring of truth about it, as Catherine Llewellyn was living in Westgate Street at the time of her marriage to Charles, 1839. i.e. around the time of the riots.
[More about the riots at Wikipedia...]
Submitted to Ancestry by user HeatherJuneRamsey 29DEC2009.