Family-History Pilgrimage: Day 10

Thursday, June 15, 2023, 6:15 a.m.

We’re up early this morning as we leave Wales and head to England’s west Midlands. Yesterday, we spent much of our time in awe of both human achievement and the majesty of God’s creation surrounding us.

The imposing entrance of Caernarfon Castle.

We drove an hour or so to Caernarfon, on the Welsh coast, to see Caernarfon Castle, a stunning 13^th-century fortress built to help England’s King Edward I secure his new lands in what had been the Welsh nation. The castle now is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, if for no other reason than it looks like every castle you saw in your mind’s eye as a child. Its walls and battlements still dominate Caernarfon, and visitors can climb and explore it to a greater extent than most ancient sites. Like great cathedrals, the castle gives you a new appreciation for the people who actually did the work of designing and building such monumental structures centuries ago. I can’t imagine doing that now, much less at a time when your tools were being forged by the blacksmith onsite. 

The massive defenses of Caernarfon.

Politically, Caernarfon offers a moment for reflection, too. Looking at the castle, I would have imagined the great walls and towers were there to secure the coastline, protecting it from invaders. I suppose that’s true, to some extent. But King Edward I built his castle here to secure his hold on the Welsh land he’d invaded, asserting royal authority to keep the people from taking their land back. Caernarfon Castle is like the forts of the American West (Fort Smith, Fort Scott, Fort Leavenworth, etc.), an outpost of territorial expansion rather than defense.

It's really windy going up Yr Wyddfa.

In the afternoon, we rode a narrow-gauge railroad up Mt. Snowdown, or Yr Wyddfa, to take in the ruggedly beautiful Welsh countryside of Snowdonia National Park. On British maps, areas like this are charmingly noted as “Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty,” and this one lives up to the billing. Ascending the mountain, you see hundreds of sheep grazing on the meager greenery that clings to the shallow soil, as well as wildflowers (mainly foxglove, Ann tells me) growing out of the rocks. And the vistas are breathtaking. Yr Wyddfa is only 3,560 feet, and one of our seatmates on the train asked whether we don’t have much more impressive mountains in the States. Yes, indeed, our mountains are much taller, but each area of outstanding natural beauty shows God’s hand in its own way.

The fireplace at Dolgellau prison,
once heating the whole ground floor.

To close out yesterday’s story of Ann’s immigrant ancestors, Robert and Jane Owen: We didn’t find the jail where he’d been held in Caernarfon (the “old” jail is from 1868, and Robert was imprisoned in Caernarfon in 1660). But here’s how their story played out. Robert was released from his five and a half years in the Dolgellau jail in 1680, and his family was part of the group of Welsh Quakers who bought tracts of the royal land grant made to William Penn in what would become Pennsylvania. In 1684, Robert and Jane, along with one son and several servants, sailed on the Vine of Liverpool to the new colony, where Robert had a commission awaiting him as a justice of the peace. Two years later, a larger migration of Welsh Quakers would take place, with Penn setting aside part of his grant for a Welsh Quaker settlement that came to be known as the Welsh Tract. Today, the map of that area, west of Philadelphia, shows many Welsh place names. Unfortunately for the Owens, Robert died within a year of arriving and didn’t witness the influx of his neighbors that began in 1686.

The flag of Wales flying over Caernarfon.

Imagine the faith it took to make that journey, starting your life over again in an unknown place with no guarantees other than adversity. It would have taken all the resolute conviction Quakers came to be known for. And along the same lines, you see signs of the Welsh independent spirit asserting itself today even as part of the United Kingdom. Like the Scots, the Welsh have a National Parliament. The road signs are in Welsh first, and then in English. BBC and ITV have Welsh channels on local cable. And it’s the flag of the Welsh red dragon that flies over Caernarfon Castle now.