Dear Bettye, Machen was located on the Tregedar Estate, so Sir Charles Morgan (formerly Gould), of Tredegar Park (1760-1846), would have 'owned' Machen and its Rector. Perhaps it was through this close connection with Sir Charles that Rev Thomas Nicholas was engaged as a curate for St George's, Hanover Square? There is a biography of Sir Charles Morgan, 2nd Baronet, on the History of Parliament website: http://tinyurl.com/p8f5set Just a thought.. Kind regards, John -------------------- John Ball, Brecon, Mid-Wales, UK E-mail: john@jlb2011.co.uk Blog: http://johnofbrecon.com Personal Homepage: http://www.jlb2011.co.uk Images of Wales: http://www.jlb2011.co.uk/walespic/ Welsh Family History Archive: http://www.jlb2011.co.uk/wales/ Joint Webmaster, Breconshire Local & Family History Society http://www.blfhs.co.uk/ GENUKI Breconshire Maintainer: http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/BRE/ Administrator - Powys RootsWeb mailing list -----Original Message----- From: Lance Kirkwood Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 4:46 PM To: dyfed@rootsweb.com Subject: [Dyfed] Men of religion Dear List, This is directed mainly at Mr. Paul Vivash if he is available, but another Lister may have an explanation. I’m just curious! St. George’s Hanover Square seems to be one of the most fashionable wedding venues for the gentry.....at least in fiction late 17-early-1800’s. One of my Devonalds married the daughter of the “Rev. Thomas Nicholas, Rector of Machen, Monmouthshire and one of the curates of St. George’s Hanover Square”. This was shown in a newspaper cutting...it is not as if the rector could pop up the road and do both jobs simultaneously so what I would like to know is if it was a common practice to draw lesser clergy from various parts of the country to assist the incumbent at St. George’s...or were there special reasons for such men to be allocated these curate roles in London. I would have imagined the senior minister at such a major Church would have several curates, in residence, to help him. Did the incumbent attend to births, deaths and marriage...any pomp and circumstance..... and was the curate’s role more administrative? The Nicholas daughters appear to have married in various Counties so it apparently did not entitle him to preside over his children’s weddings at such an exalted location. Bettye Kirkwood, Australia.