IN ANCIENT TIMES
accepted by the inhabitants, often with indifference, although small pockets of resistance were present in the area for a very long time, even in face of harsh punishment.
Their priests conducted secret masses and burials at night.
That there were small numbers of recusants in the neighbourhood for long after the Reformation is shown by a record that as late as 1622 twenty-seven persons in the county, including people from Gelligaer, were brought to court at Cardiff for refusal to attend Church services.
An Act of Parliament sponsored by Oliver Cromwell removed many parsons from their benefices because of their doctrines and we find that among those who suffered was Robert Covey, rector of Gelligaer, who was deprived of his living in 1641. He died in 1645 and was succeeded by David Davies, a local man, who was chosen by the people. Davies adhered to the new dissenters and left the parish in 1650 to join the Baptists at Ilston, in Gower.
Such nonconforming clergy were removed from their livings by an Act of Uniformity in 1662, when Robert Thomas was appointed rector of Gelligaer. He is best remembered for his efforts to renew customs which had been allowed to fall into disuse. The parish registers record the burial of Robert Thomas on the 22nd February, 1728, and he had, therefore, held the living for sixty-six years.
A custom of payment of tithe had existed in Gelligaer area long before the arrival of the Norman priests when, generally, a tenth portion of the produce of the land was set aside for the purpose of repairing the chancel and the maintenance of the poor of the parish.
It appears to have lapsed among the inhabitants with the ministries of David Davies and two others who immediately followed him and, with a view to its re-establishment, the parson, Robert Thomas, and parishioners met on the 17th June, 1676, when " ye most Ancient and knowing men " examined and confirmed customs which had been in use and practice for many years.
A document, drawn up on the 1st January, 1699, and signed by nineteen of these " knowing " inhabitants, confirms the ancient rights and privileges of the parson and the customs of the parish whereby the parishioners paid tithe in kind on live-stock and produce, the proportions in which they were payable, and the days and times when they ought to be brought into the church, for the four lower hamlets of the parish, and into the chapel at Brithdir, by certain of the people of the hamlet of Ysgwyddgwyn. It was confirmed that at Easter there was due from every married couple an offering of 6d., from every widower and widow 3d., and from every single person of 16 years and upwards, a penny. Fees for burials in the chancel ranged from 8d. in the upper part to 3d. in the lower part, and the fee for marriage was Is. 2d.
This custom of payment of tithe in kind continued until an Act of 1836 made it a charge upon the land and, in 1936, the system was extinguished by payment of redemption annuities.