Samuel and Sarah Jones
Sarah Rees (1842-1928)
Notes from a conversation with her granddaughters in the late 1960s record that Sarah Rees came from Victoria, Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire
and had Bevan ancestry. An interpretation of censuses between 1841 and 1861 indicates that Rees Rees (c.1816- ) and
Margaret Bevan (c.1811-) -
daughter of Meredith Bevan (c.1786-1854) and wife Jane Bevan (c.1782- ) - were her parents and that she had sisters
Mary Rees (c.1838- )and Jane Rees (c.1840- ).
In the 1851 census, a 9-year-old Sarah Rees is described as a niece, (born in Monmouthshire Bedwellty) in the household of
Meredith Bevan a 46-year-old iron puddler (born Breconshire Llandefalle) and wife Hannah (47) (born Glamorgan Merthyr) in Augusta Street at the Victoria Iron Works, Ebbw Vale. There is also
a lodger Robert Thomas. In 1861 the situation remained the same except that birthplaces were given slightly differently: Meredith (55) from Brecon Cwmdu;
Hannah (57) Glamorgan Dowlais; Sarah Rees (boarder) (19) Monmouth Victoria; Robert Thomas (lodger) iron puddler (23) Monmouth Ebbw Vale. This Meredith
Bevan died in 1889 and wife Hannah died in 1882.
Going back to the 1841 census we find another Meredith Bevan in Augusta Street,
wife Jane, sons Thomas and Jonathan and daughter Jane (14). Next door to them we find Rees Rees, wife Margaret and daughters Mary (3) and Jane (1).
In 1851 Meredith (65) a labourer born Brecon Cwmdu, Hannah (68) born Brecon Talgarth, Thomas (38) unmarried puddler born Brecon Llangunider,
Jonathan (34) unmarried puddler born Brecon Cwmdu, are with daughter Jane Watkins (widow) (24) born Monmouth Aberystruth. In 1861 the same family
(without Meredith) and Jane a widow have a granddaughter Jane Rees (21) and another Margaret Bevan (16) both laundresses (presumably
in the neighbouring laundry) born Monmouth Bedwellty, the parish including the Victoria Iron Works. The older Meredith Bevan died in 1854 and Jonathan
Bevan in 1867.
Samuel Jones (1843-1917)
Samuel (7) appears in the 1851 census with father John Jones (50) Head, Farm Labourer born Pensby(?), Carmarthenshire in Trallwn,
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire. Others in the household are Mary (56) Wife, Rachel (28) Daughter At Home, Michael (23) Son Coal
Miner, Hannah (18)
Daughter Tin Worker, David (15) Son Tin Worker, Margaret (10) Daughter, and Evan (5) Son all supposedly born in
Pensby, Carmarthenshire. In the 1841 census there was also a son Thomas with an age of 10.
Thomas is significant as we find him living in Ebbw Vale from the
1861 census onwards as a neighbour of the Bevan family. In 1881, for example he is at Queen Street (a renamed Contractors Row?), (46) profession
engine driver, with wife Mary (46) born Dowlais, son J.R. Jones (19) engine driver born Victoria, daughter Alice Jones (14) domestic servant born
Victoria, two more sons D.R. (11) and T.H. (8) and daughter Margaret Jones (5), all born Victoria. Thomas had died by 1891 leaving widow Mary, son
Thomas (18) and daughter Margaret (15). The next household consists of John R. Jones (29) stationary engine driver with wife Edith (28) (probably Edith Evans) born
London (in the 1901 census given as Shepherdess Walk, Shoreditch likely to Thomas Evans, a Tinman, and wife Rebecca) and two children Thomas Richard Jones (5) and Evan Rees Jones (3) born Victoria. Edith
was the only non-Welsh speaker, virtually all the others being bilingual apart
from Welsh-only Mary. By 1901 they were in Six Bells,
and in Llanelli Carmarthenshire in the 1911 census.
(Note Edith Evans is found in the 1871 census living with her father's sister Sarah Ann North and husband Silas North in Dawley, Shropshire. The North
family are in Augusta Street, Bedwellty in 1881 where Silas is a baker and confectioner).
Samuel's sister Hannah married William D. John (1841-1915) in 1865 and had at least three children:
Mary Jane John (c.1866- ), David John (c.1871- ) and Rees John (1875-1919). More about the family is revealed in this letter from
the USA in 1912:
Sam and Sarah's married life
The most likely marriage for Sarah and Samuel Jones took place at Zoar Baptist Chapel, Ystalyfera on August 13 1870 when her father was given as Rees Rees.
In 1871 Samuel and Sarah were living in Contractors Row, Ebbw Vale with son Jonathon Jones (1) born Monmouth Bedwellty. Their next-door neighbours
were listed as Thomas Beavan (57) Labourer born Brecon Llangynider, Jane Bevan sister (44) widow born Monmouth Aberystruth and Margaret Bevan, niece
(25) born Monmouth Bedwellty. In 1881 Thomas Bevan (66) born Rhymney and Jane Bevan (55) born Nantyglo appeared not to have moved (same neighbours).
Thomas Bevan died in 1887 aged 73; Jane Bevan is alone in 1891 and died in SepQ 1898 aged 72.
In the 1881 census Samuel and Sarah were recorded at 'Pantyffynon', in the parish of Bettws, Carmarthenshire. The names of the
adjacent properties indicate that this was in the
area, not the more familiar Pantyffynon near Ammanford. Samuel was shown as a 38-year-old
Rail Engine driver, born Llanelly with wife Sara (39), and children Jonathon R. (12), Margaret (9), Mary (7) (all born Ebbw Vale) and
Thomas (3) and Meredith (2) (born Carmarthenshire Bettws).
Margaret Jane Jones
In 1891 they had moved to a nearby property, Penwaun, where Samuel is recorded as a stationary engine driver. Sons Thomas and
Meredith are coal miners. Margaret J. was then married to James Thomas (21) also a coal miner, both living at Penwaun (see
). Jonathon was recorded
as a Railway Foreman lodging in the house of Henry and Annie Morgan at Gurnos, Ystradgynlais with mother Sarah a visitor.
By 1901 they had moved again to Grenig Cottages when Samuel remained an engine driver. Margaret Jane had died of tuberculosis in 1896 and one of her
daughters Elizabeth Ann Thomas (8) was living with them along with Polly (Mary) and Thomas (Tommy). They had a new house 'Brooklands' built on
Cwmamman Road (now 128). Polly died of TB in 1906. Neither Polly or Thomas married - he died in 1956. Meredith, A GWR engine driver, married Margaretta Thomas (b.1884) in
Carmarthen and had at least one child, John Samuel Jones (b.1909) who became a policeman. Meredith's retirement is mentioned in the
Amman Valley Chronicle of May 18 1939 where he is described as a 'royal train driver' having commenced as an engine cleaner in the Garnant shed in
1894 and retired from the Carmarthen shed after 45 years service. He drove the Royal Train to Pencader in summer 1937. (source: www.tytwp.plus.com).
Jonathon married Olive Hanlon (1882-1964, also known as
Olive Morgan) in Swansea in 1903. They had: Olga Jones (1903-1908); Samuel Jones (Sammy) (1904-1964) married Margaret (Maggie), no children;
Olive Jones (b.1906); Meredith Jones (1910-2002) married Pamela Treharne (1914-2000) and had children. Jonathon died in Talgarth of
'TB of the brain' (according to family information) in 1913.
Gravestone
The following inscription was recorded on a gravestone at Hen Bethel, Cwmaman in the 1960s:
ER COF AM
MARY MERCH
SAMUEL a SARAH JONES
BROOKLAND HOUSE
GLANAMMAN
YR HON A FU FARW MAWRTH 9, 1906
YN 31 MLWYDD OED
HEFYD SAMUEL JONES, UCHOD
BU FARW MEDI 17, 1917
YN 75 OED
HEFYD SARAH JONES, UCHOD,
BU FARW GORFF 14, 1928
YN 86 OED
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