It was back in the late 1970’s that I found myself in a typical small Welsh house in Llandybie, a little village just outside Ammanford. I had gone to visit my future Mamgu In Law for afternoon tea and ‘bara brith’. I sat there looking around the room. An old Welsh dresser, a travelling Singer sewing machine and some family pictures on the mantlepiece. As she cut me an extra-large piece of cake I noticed a painting of a log cabin on the wall which looked as if it had come from an old Western film.
Mamgu
‘Mamgu’, I said, ‘why have you got a painting of a log cabin’. In her small, gentle, homely voice with a lovely West Walian accent she said, ‘That’s the cabin I used to live in’. By this time I was intrigued and asked her where this log cabin was. It was then her voice changed into the broadest America accent I had heard this side of Carmarthen…’Scranton’.
It was back in the early part of the 20th century that 5 year old Sarah Williams from Betws found herself leaving Liverpool on the Mauritania bound for America. A little while earlier her father had been killed in an industrial accident. Her mother found herself a widow and single parent aged 27, what was she going to do?
Today we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. On 4th July 1776 at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, 13 colonies announced that they were severing ties to Great Britain to become an independent nation. These days most people know about this whole movement from the musical ‘Hamilton’ but if you’re not a fan of musicals let me say there were lots of reasons for the break. The colonists were angry that they were being taxed by King George III with any real representation. They also believed that people had ‘natural’ rights as stated in the declaration, ‘life liberty and pursuit of happiness’.
What people here in Wales might not realise is the part that Welsh people played in founding this new country. In the 1680’s, looking to find religious freedom, Welsh Quakers settled in Pennsylvania. It is said the founder William Penn had wanted to call the State ‘New Wales’ because it reminded him of the landscape they had left behind but had been overruled by King Charles II.
Even before that Swansea was making its mark across the Atlantic. It’s hard now for us to understand the impact the English Civil War had on ordinary people and their ability to worship as they wanted. During the years of the Oliver Cromwell Commonwealth the first Baptist Church in Wales was founded by Rev John Myles in St Illtyd’s Church on Gower.
The restoration of King Charles II in 1660 led to the Baptists being forced to leave that building to build their own chapel in the woods. You can still see the ruins not far from the Gower Inn. In 1663 the Act of Uniformity outlawed dissenting assemblies. It was then Rev Myles decided to look for religious freedom in the colonies. Together with a number of followers he went on to settle in a town they called Swansea, Massachusetts.
By 1776 the Welsh were well represented in the Americas, so it is not surprising at that historic meeting in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration there were lot of people with Welsh roots. Only one of them had been born in Wales but maybe another 16 of the signatories had Welsh ancestry. These included Thomas Jefferson the man who wrote the first draft. Over the years 8 US Presidents including Abraham Lincoln and John Adams could claim Welsh heritage.
In the early 1900’s it is said over 75,000 people left Wales to look for a new life in America. They joined people from all over the world who had read stories of land and jobs and freedom and had decided to leave everything they knew and everyone they loved at home in search of a better life.
Often the exodus would start with the young men of the family. Either alone or maybe going with a brother or cousin these men would be the first to try their luck in the New World. As they established roots, found jobs and saved their money they would send word back home and invite others to join them. Many Welsh people travelled to parts of America that already had a Welsh community. Pennsylvania had that, it also had industry like mining especially around Scranton
The Manifest of the Mauritania
This was Mamgu’s story. Her Uncle Rees appears to be the first to arrive in Scranton and as tragedy had left his sister a widow he invited her to join him as a housekeeper. So it was that in September 1909 Mamgu boarded the Mauritania in Liverpool and headed west.
It is amazing the amount of information available at the touch of a few computer key strokes. It is now possible to search the US Immigration records. We had some basic facts about Mamgu’s name, age and the approximate year that she travelled to Ellis Island. Within a few moments we had found the SS Mauritania’s Ship’s Manifest sailing from Liverpool arriving on 25 September 1909. There she was, Sarah A Williams, a child aged 5 from Ammanford and heading for Scranton.
The Arrival Hall Ellis Island
Many years later on a family holiday to New York we took the boat to Ellis Island. We stood at one of those tall desks where that little girl and her mother had once stood.
We then went out of the back of the main hall down some steps to the ‘Kissing Gate’. In those days unaccompanied females would need to be met by a male relative or friend. After years of being apart so many of them were over joyed and greeted the new comers with hugs and kisses…thus the name.
The Back Stairs to the Kissing Gate
Back in that room in Llandybie Mamgu explained that after a year or so, feeling homesick she and her mother returned to Wales. She pointed to the Singer sewing machine. That machine had also travelled back and fore across the Atlantic.
Uncle Rees decided to stay and eventually went on to become a Professor of Sociology at the prestigious Ivy League Dartmouth College. There are tales of him returning often to Wales with his very glamorous Swedish American wife.
Mamgu married back home in Wales
As for Mamgu, she married, had 2 boys and lived a quiet life in Llandybie attending the local Gospel Hall in Pantyfynnon with Mrs Edwards, the grandmother of Sir Garth Edwards. At the time I met her I thought that was the most interesting thing that would have happened to her. It was only that picture of a Log Cabin that unlocked a story that I would never have guessed. It also inspired a song which I have just released called New Day. Listen now to hear her full story.
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/malpope/new-day