This is the story of the Wilsons, one family that came to Llanelli during the Industrial Revolution, but it is also a reflection of many such families who arrived in the early part of the 19th century hoping to find a better life for their children

The Wilsons and the Industrial Revolution

Interesting facts about the Wilson family

Edwin wilson was born in Haverfordwest around 1815 and married a local girl named Frances around 1832. The wedding probably took place in their local church and for a short time they continued to live in Haverfordwest where their first child, Mary, was born in 1833.

Times were hard and many young married couples were forced to seek work in other towns. Edwin and Frances with their daughter Mary had moved to Carmarthen by 1836 and their son John was born there.

With a wife and two young children to support, Edwin was probably looking for skilled work and heard of the metal industries in Llanelli. It may be that he had relatives in the small town and would have been aware of the fact that the growing population needed woollen clothes, shawls and blankets.

Whatever the reason, by 1837 Edwin and Frances settled in Llanelli where their son William was born. The family, now consisting of Edwin, Frances, Mary, John and William, all lived in Cilurfa Row, near Long Row in the Wern District where Edwin worked as a Wool Spinner. A young apprentice lad named Thomas, just 14 years old, also lived with the family.

The census of 1841 shows that other families called Wilson also lived in the area – at Cambrian Place and Seaside. In the Llanelli of 1841 Wilson was not a common name and it is tempting to link all the Wilsons as members of the same family.

The fact that Wilsons were living in the Seaside area would suggest a maritime link and if they were related, the ages imply that William, Edwin, Sarah and John were the children of Elizabeth Wilson and her husband, who was a Coastguard, probably named William Wilson.

According to the family tree prepared by a descendant of Edwin and Frances Wilson, Edwin’s father was believed to be Scottish or Welsh. The mystery could be solved by the fact that Edwin’s father, William Wilson, a Coastguard from Haverfordwest, was stationed in Scotland around 1824. His son James was born in Scotland in 1824 but by 1861 was living in Llanelli.

As an important maritime official a Coastguard would be able to take his wife and family with him as he travelled around the country; this may explain why William was born in Llanelli, Edwin in Haverfordwest, Sarah in Grimsby and James in Scotland.

By 1841 Edwin was living at Cilurfa Row in the Wern District, working as a wool spinner, probably for a master weaver. Ten years later he was living with his growing family in Upper Wern, probably Cilurfa Row, and was described as a weaver.

The eldest daughter Mary, now aged 18 was a dressmaker, their two sons John aged 16 and William aged 14 were both weavers.

Their other children were Emma aged 9, Samuel aged 5, Edwin Junior aged 3 and Luther just a baby of one year. They had a servant called Sarah Beynon who was unmarried and living with them.

By 1861 Edwin and Frances, now aged 46, had moved to a woollen mill known as Cwmbach Factory, in Cwmbach Road, not far from the Farriers Arms, on the road to Trimsaran, in the small village of Cwmbach. Their older children had left the family home and only Emma 17, Samuel 15, Edwin 13, Luther 11, Martha 9 and Anna 5 remained.

Edwin Wilson was a woollen weaver and worked long hours at the woollen mill making clothes, blankets and other woven items for the town’s increasing working population. Originally the Mill would have been powered by a water wheel and later by a steam engine, as technology progressed. The great wheel that drove the machinery would have been powered by water from a leat that was supplied by the river. There was no electricity, probably no gas and definitely no central heating. The evening light would have come from candles or a paraffin lamp and the coal fired cooking range would have been used both for heating water and cooking food It was commonplace to have a large family since there was no family planning advice and children had to work and help support the family. One can only imagine how hard life must have been, without today’s modern ‘conveniences’, to bring up large families and cope with a family at the same time.

The 1861 census shows that Samuel Wilson aged 15, one of the many sons of Edwin and Frances Wilson, was working with his father as a Weaver. Six years later, on 10 August 1867, Samuel Wilson married Mary Emma Pudner from Teignmouth in Devon. The Census records of 1871 show that Samuel had left the Woollen Mill and was living with his wife Emma at Stanley Court in the New Dock area of town.

By this time Samuel and Emma had two children, Robert aged 3 and Martin aged 1, who were both born in Llanelli. It would seem that Samuel Wilson did not follow his father’s trade but became a blacksmith instead. It was left to another of Edwin and Frances’s sons, Luther, to carry on the family business at Cwmbach.

According to the 1881 census, Luther was a weaver married to Adeline or Adelaid with four daughters and one son. Luther and his wife Adelaid, who was sometimes called Adeline, continued to carry on the business of the woollen mill and brought up their children – Emily Jane, Arthur, Annie, Alice and Ethel.

Luther Wilson with Adeline (Adelaid)

Picture here at an advanced age, Luther was a wool winder at Cwmbach Factory

By 1881 the ageing Edwin and Frances Wilson were probably grateful to have Luther and his family living with them at the mill. Their many children had left home and had settled with their own families in the thriving town, working at different trades. Some lived in the Seaside area and some nearer the town centre. Taking a glimpse into the Wilson history is similar to taking a peek at other families of the period as they struggled to raise their families. There was no National Health Service and very often medical treatment was non-existent or very primitive to say the least. Children and adults died of diseases that have long since disappeared or can now be controlled by modern drugs.

Sarah Jane Wilson and James Blewett

(probably on their wedding day, 1902)

Sarah Jane was Emma Wilson’s daughter and James was the son of James Henry Blewett. Emma Wilson married James Henry Blewett when her first husband Samuel Wilson died in 1893.

Samuel Wilson, son of Edwin and Frances of the Cwmbach factory, died on 15 September 1893. His widow Emma (Mary Emma Pudner) married James Blewett a widower with children. It was a common occurrence for a widow and a widower to find another partner after the death of their spouse. For economic reasons a woman, who often had many children, would look for the financial security of a husband, and the widower would be looking for a partner capable of looking after him and his children and managing domestic and household matters.

Emma and daughter Sarah Jane Blewett

One of Samuel and Emma’s sons was Thomas John Wilson, who was born around 1884. This Thomas John Wilson married Harriet Ann Thomas and they had at least six children, including Elizabeth Emma, Harold, Carey, Frances, Margaret and Thomas. Frances was the mother of Hazel who could be described as a ‘21st century Wilson’. Hazel and her family, after moving away from Llanelli for a while, now live in Trinity Road which is not far from the Wern, Seaside and New Dock areas where her great great grandfather, Edwin Wilson, great grandfather, Samuel Wilson, and grandfather, Thomas John Wilson, lived and worked.

Interesting facts about the Wlison family

1880 Thomas John Wilson born 27 May, son of Samuel and Emma Wilson, died on 28 August of diarrhoea and is buried with his parents in an unmarked grave in the Box Cemetery.

1889 William Edwin Wilson died on 28 February aged 2 years 8 months from shock as a result of burns.

1898 Sarah Jane Wilson (b.1897) from Bwlchygwynt died at age 6½ months.

1900 Evan Alfred Wilson (c. 1872-1940) married Lillian Bessant (c 1876-1957) on 20 January after knowing each other for six weeks. They parted six weeks after their marriage.

1908 George Reginald Wilson was born in January 1908 died in April 1908, and his mother died as a result of his birth.

1923 William Martin Wilson (b.1905) bled to death on 5 October as a result of tooth extraction.

1929 Emma Maria (Amy) Bowen (b. c. 1905), daughter of Thomas and Frances Bowen, died of consumption on 13 April.

1930 Frances L. Wilson (b. c.1874) died on 21 April. On 28 April, her husband, Thomas James Bowen (b. c. 1873) died in a colliery accident in Gorseinon – exactly one week after his wife’s death. Their daughter had died the previous year.

1960 Thomas George Blewett born 1905, son of Sarah Jane Wilson and James Henry Blewett died on 27 February and is buried in the Box Cemetery.