John and Amy Williams

The earliest Williams of Great House named in a dated record is a John Williams who had died before December 1864, when his widow Amy died at Llandough at the age of 65. A John Williams occupied about 119 acres at Llandough at the tithe survey of about 1841; whether that was this John Williams or his son is not settled by the survey.

30 December 1864 — Death of Amy Williams, widow of John Williams of Great House farm

Record:

EV-0246 (Legal Wiki, Evidence Register)

What the record shows. A death notice in the Cardiff Times records that Amy, widow of the late John Williams of Great House farm, Llandough, died at Llandough on 23 December 1864, aged 65. Her husband had therefore died before December 1864.

What it does not show. It does not name their children. That the next John Williams was their son fits the 1904 rent-audit report but is not proven by this notice.

The family dates its life at the farm much earlier. In her statement of about 1974 Mary (Nancy) Williams wrote: “My family have lived and farmed at Great House Farm since 1667.” The documents behind that date are SOURCE PENDING.