Slate quarrying in Pembrokeshire [continued - part 6] ########### Difficult times The late 1870s were to prove a difficult time for the slate industry in Wales as a whole, and there followed in the early 1880s significant emigration from north Wales, especially, to the slate belt of the USA. But the 1881 census shows that there were still significant numbers of north Welsh quarrymen living and working in Llanrhian parish. Some of the names are by now familiar, having appeared in the 1861/71 censuses.Almost all had now married local women and seen their children born and brought up in Pembrokeshire. Significantly too, there were no longer unmarried young men from north Wales living in the parish and lodging with local families. Llanrhian was obviously no longer a focus or attraction for these. The area though had proved an attraction for the Rev Richard Rowlands, aged 32, born CAE, along with his wife Laura, a native of Llanberis, CAE, but who now lived in Park Court, Tre-fin. Price Roberts and family: Price Roberts, "Slater" from CAE, was noted in the 1851 census, an unmarried lodger in Tre-fin village. From the census and parish registers his subsequent life can be portrayed. He succeeded in attracting the attention of a young local woman, Lettice Thomas, of Tre-fin, who on 3 Nov 1853, whilst they were still unmarried, bore him a son, William. Price must have acknowledged his obligations even at this point though as Jacob Hughes, vicar of the parish, broke his usual practice in the case of bastard children, namely entering either a christian name only, or coupling the child's name with its mother's surname, by entering Lettice's child as William Roberts. The couple must have soon married and by Oct 1855 had another son, John. The 1861 census shows no further children, the two sons shown as "scholars", with the family living with John Thomas, Lettice's father, a widower who farmed 6 acres of land near Tre-fin. By 1871 , although John Thomas was still alive, his place as "head" was tak en by Price Roberts . William and John no longer appeared on the census suggesting they had moved away for work, but the family had a young daughter, Martha, aged 1 year. Martha Roberts, aged 11, and her sister Margaret, aged 6, appear on the 1881 census too. By this time their father is a "Stone Quarry Manager" and their rising status is reflected by the fact that they now employ Anne Harries, a local girl, as a maid servant. No further records were available for the family. [Based on The Pembrokeshire Slate Quarrymen by Dafydd Roberts, in Llafur [Journal of Welsh Labour History] Vol 5/1, 1988. Gareth, 24 Jan 2001 D/P] ######## Gareth List Administrator for Dyfed, CGN & PEM. Lookup Exchange http://www.johngareth.freeserve.co.uk/lookup.html Help Page http://www.johngareth.freeserve.co.uk/hicks.html