IN ANCIENT TIMES
Surnames.
Formerly Welshmen were always named " ap " (the son of) followed by their fathers' names in a somewhat Biblical fashion. For example, an early member of the Prichard family was called Richard ap Lewis ap Richard Gwyn of Llancaiach. Under this regime, the first name was adopted as the surname and the son was known simply as Edward Prichard.
A New System of Justice.
With the rest of the county, the Fochriw area was brought under the efficient Tudor system of justice and the people thus became familiar with the Justice of the Peace and the Sheriff. In Glamorgan there were only eight Justices of the Peace and they looked upon the office as an honour conferred upon them by the Crown. There is no record of any local person who served on that first small and select body.
The most important official within the county was the Sheriff, who was responsible for law and order, tax collections and jury appointments. Members of the local leading families figured prominently in public affairs from Tudor times until well into the eighteenth century.
In 1599, Edward Prichard, who built Llancaiach Fawr, served as Sheriff. His grandson, Colonel Edward Prichard, served in the same capacity in 1637. Walter Williams, who was alleged to have converted Capel Gwladys into a private residence, was Under-sheriff in 1568 and 1575.
Members of the family of Lewis of the Van were Sheriffs nine times between 1548 and 1689, while from the Thomas family of Blaenbradach, and landowners in the Gelligaer region, there were three Sheriffs between 1674 and 1728. In modern times the office has been held by Henry Lewis of Greenmeadow and Gethin Lewis, both descendants of the local Lewis family.
Roman Catholic Gelligaer.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century the religion of Gelligaer was Roman Catholic and the region must have been dotted with crosses and shrines. The people venerated and prayed to the Virgin Mary as well as to the old Welsh Saints.
When Henry VIII severed the religious connection with Rome, Protestantism was established as the English State Church. As a result, St. Catwg's ceased to be Roman Catholic and became an Anglican Church. Capel Gwladys was converted into a private residence. Shrines and crosses in the district were destroyed but memories of those crosses still linger in such local names as Groesfaen (stone cross) and Waun-y-Groes (meadow of the Cross).
Local Government.
In accordance with the Elizabethan Poor Law Act of 1601, the civic affairs of this area were placed, as elsewhere, in the hands of the Parish Vestry.
This Parish Vestry, with its wardens and overseers of the poor, was the first local senate and sat at Gelligaer Church. One of the features of that Vestry was that the rector was always ex-officio chairman.