Historical names: Abermarlais Castle; Abermarlais Park
Location: Carmarthenshire
Places / associated places: Carmarthenshire
Location & Extent
GPS Location & Recorded Land Areas
Representative GPS point: 51.94897, -3.90388
Identity: confirmed — The registry description, Carmarthenshire location, Abermarlais Castle identification, Llansadwrn context, Rhys ap Thomas/Jones/Foley ownership history, and the cited TNA record all correspond to the medieval and early-modern Abermarlais manor and estate centred at Abermarlais Castle in Llansadwrn, Carmarthenshire. This is distinct from the similarly named Abercamlais in Breconshire and from Llansadwrn in Anglesey.
Representative point: 51.94897, -3.90388
Basis: documented_manor_site — Abermarlais Castle is recorded at Ordnance Survey grid reference SN692295 as a probable medieval fortified manor house and former high-status manorial residence. The coordinate is the WGS84 conversion published for that documented site.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to early modern; later estate evidence documented in the nineteenth century
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The sources establish the manor and estate centre at Abermarlais and show that the associated estate included lands beyond the house, manorial rights, River Towy royalties, and the presentation to Llansadwrn vicarage. The 1839 tithe evidence confirms individual properties such as Glandulais Farmhouse as part of the Abermarlais estate. However, no reliable online source located in this research supplies a complete historical perimeter or a sufficiently explicit set of boundary landmarks for reconstructing the manorial extent. The parish of Llansadwrn and the later Abermarlais Park must not be substituted for the manor boundary.
Sources:
- The National Archives: Abermarlais Manor, TNA/MDR record F237242: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F237242 — Registry record identifying the exact manor, its Carmarthenshire location, Abermarlais Castle, Llansadwrn, and the associated historical estate description.
- The National Archives: Reeves' and beadles' accounts, with other manors, 1531-1532, SC 6/Hen VIII/4887-4888: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N14284230 — Contemporary archival lead associated with the manor and its early Tudor administrative context.
- Abermarlais Castle, The Gatehouse Gazetteer: https://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/Welshsites/179.html — Identifies Abermarlais Castle in Llansadwrn, Carmarthenshire, as a probable fortified manor house; gives grid reference SN692295 and coordinates 51.94897, -3.90388; records its association with Rhys ap Gruffydd/Rhys ap Thomas and the neighbouring lordship of Llansadwrn.
- Coflein archaeological gazetteer extract, PRN 11169 Abermarlais Castle: https://coflein.gov.uk/media/387/521/awp_476_01.pdf — Royal Commission archaeological record identifying Abermarlais Castle as a medieval fortified manor house in Llansadwrn at NGR SN692295, with documentary and cartographic references.
- Heneb: Llansadwrn-Llanwrda Historic Landscape Character Area: https://heneb.org.uk/hcla/towy-valley/210-llansadwrn-llanwrda/ — Provides historical context for the medieval Abermarlais estate and the neighbouring manor or lordship of Llansadwrn, while distinguishing the manorial landscape from the later parish landscape.
- Glandulais Farmhouse, Llansadwrn, Carmarthenshire: https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/300011181-glandulais-farmhouse-llansadwrn — States that Glandulais was on the Abermarlais estate and was marked as estate-owned on the 1839 tithe map, demonstrating associated estate land away from the manor house.
- The Carmarthenshire Historian: biography of Admiral Sir Thomas Foley: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?doi=c8c50238295d8b845a6f5ff6f5295196022b739c&repid=rep1&type=pdf — Quotes Foley's description of his 1795 purchase of Abermarlais Park with its manor, River Towy royalties, and presentation to the vicarage of Llansadwrn.
- National Library of Wales: Tithe Maps of Wales: https://places.library.wales/ — Confirms the availability of the Llansadwrn, Carmarthenshire tithe-map collection relevant to reconstructing nineteenth-century estate holdings, but the accessible evidence located here did not establish a complete Abermarlais manor perimeter.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative coordinate identifies the documented Abermarlais Castle/manor-house site, not the full historical extent of the manor.
- No historical manorial boundary polygon is returned because the available evidence does not define a complete perimeter.
- The extent of the manor may have differed from the later Abermarlais estate and from the parish or lordship of Llansadwrn.
- The nineteenth-century estate was larger or differently configured than the medieval manorial holding may have been; estate ownership of individual farms does not by itself prove the medieval manor boundary.
About the Manor
Abermarlais was a medieval and early modern manor and high-status residential estate at Llansadwrn in Carmarthenshire, near the River Tywi. The site is recorded archaeologically as Abermarlais Castle, a probable fortified manor house and medieval manorial centre. The house was associated with the Rhys ap Thomas and Jones families and was later known as Abermarlais Park. The medieval house was replaced or substantially superseded by a later mansion, which was rebuilt by Admiral Sir Thomas Foley in the early nineteenth century and demolished after a fire in the late twentieth century. The historical estate included manorial rights, royalties of the River Towy, and the presentation to the vicarage of Llansadwrn, according to a nineteenth-century account quoting Foley's description of his 1795 purchase.
Ownership / Holder Account
The securely evidenced history begins with the Griffith line of Abermarlais and the incorporation of the estate into the Dynevor possessions through the maternal inheritance of Rhys ap Thomas. In the early sixteenth century Abermarlais was held by Sir Rhys ap Griffith, also called Rhys ap Gruffydd FitzUrien, who was executed for treason in 1531; the estate and the neighbouring lordship of Llansadwrn then fell to the Crown. Sir Thomas Jones, a relative and administrator of the forfeited estate, obtained a lease of Abermarlais in 1546 and became associated with the designation 'of Abermarlais'. The estate remained with Jones's descendants into the later seventeenth century, although the intervening documentary descent has not been reconstructed securely here. By the early eighteenth century it was held by Thomas Cornwallis and then by his son Francis Cornwallis. After the Cornwallis succession, the estate came into the hands of Sir Cornwallis Maude, from whom Captain Thomas Foley purchased Abermarlais in 1795. Foley expressly described the purchase as including Abermarlais Park, its manor, the royalties of the River Towy, and the presentation to Llansadwrn vicarage. After Foley's death in 1833 the estate continued in the Foley family; a 1839 tithe-map description records the Abermarlais estate as owned by the heirs of Admiral Sir Thomas Foley. The estate passed under Foley's will to his great-nephew Henry Foley after the death of Lady Lucy Foley in 1851. Further nineteenth- and twentieth-century descent requires confirmation from deeds, probate, or estate-sale records and is not supplied as a secure conveyance here.
Records & References
Sources and references mentioning this manor/title which are not necessarily conveyances or transfers.
1 record found · showing 1–1.
1531-1532: reeves' and beadles' accounts, with other manors
Held by: The National Archives
Conveyance & Descent
First holder to present holder: blood proximity & distance travelled
First recorded holder: The Crown
Present holder:
Recorded title journey: 3 holder entries in this manor's saved Conveyance & Descent history.
No recorded holder currently has a usable saved direct-blood or collateral-blood relationship path from which to calculate proximity percentages.
First recorded holder → present holder
A usable saved blood relationship path between the first recorded holder and the present holder has not yet been recorded, so that first-to-present genealogical distance cannot be calculated.
The Crown, Crown proprietor following forfeiture
Transfer: Forfeiture following the execution of Rhys ap Griffith FitzUrien for treason; Abermarlais and the neighbouring lordship of Llansadwrn fell to the Crown.
Previous holder: Rhys ap Griffith FitzUrien
The Crown's possession is a consequence of forfeiture rather than a private conveyance. Sir Thomas Jones subsequently administered the property and obtained a lease in 1546, but the consulted sources do not establish the exact date or terms by which Crown ownership or control changed thereafter.
Source: The Gatehouse Record, Abermarlais Castle, stating that after Rhys ap Gruffydd was executed for treason the estate and neighbouring lordship of Llansadwrn fell to the Crown. — source link
Sir Cornwallis Maude, Viscount Hawarden, seller of Abermarlais in 1795
Transfer: Held Abermarlais before selling the estate to Captain Thomas Foley in 1795. The source does not establish the date or instrument by which the estate came to Maude.
Shared holding: Maude family
Previous holder: Cornwallis family or an intermediate successor not securely identified
A nineteenth-century Carmarthenshire historical account states that Foley purchased Abermarlais in 1795 from Sir Cornwallis Maude, Viscount Hawarden. The intervening eighteenth-century descent from Francis Cornwallis is not supplied and should remain an explicit gap.
Source: The Carmarthenshire Historian, account of Abermarlais and Admiral Foley, quoting Foley's description of his 1795 purchase from Sir Cornwallis Maude, Viscount Hawarden. — source link
Transfer: Continuation of the Foley estate after Admiral Sir Thomas Foley's death in 1833; the 1839 Llansadwrn tithe evidence records the Abermarlais estate as owned by his heirs.
Holding arrangement: Trust
Shared holding: Foley estate under testamentary succession
Previous holder: Admiral Sir Thomas Foley
The 1839 tithe-map evidence identifies the Abermarlais estate as owned by the heirs of Admiral Sir Thomas Foley. This entry records the estate as a testamentary or family holding pending the later disposition under Foley's will; it does not identify every legal trustee or beneficiary.
Source: Cadw listing description for Glandulais Farmhouse, citing the 1839 Llansadwrn tithe map and stating that the estate was then owned by heirs of Admiral Sir Thomas Foley. — source link
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JSON API
Machine-readable published manor data, including public images, mapped land areas, notes, rights, conveyances, relationships, records, source/document-library entries and public file links.
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