Scattered
Prehistoric and Roman finds and sites have been found in
the Newport area - in addition to the major Roman Legionary
fortress of Isca (Caerleon) and the Iron Age fort
on the Gaer. However the first settlement which led to the
foundation of modern Newport appears to have been on the
top of Stow Hill, where by tradition St Gwynllyw (St Woolos)
established a church in the sixth century. The sub-kingdom
('cantref' in Welsh) of Gwynlwg, named after Gwynllyw,
was established on the west bank of the Usk. Its boundaries
appear to have stretched from the mouth of the River Usk
in the east, to Rumney in the west, and from the sea to
the border of the later Breconshire.
There
is little evidence of the early history of Gwynlwg.
In the sixth century it was part of the kingdom of Glywysing
(later to known as Morgannwg). By the 10th century
it appears to have been a separate kingdom, lying between
the kingdom of Gwent in the east and the kingdom of Morgannwg
in the west, but by the time of the Norman conquest it had
re-united with Morgannwg. Later, a division ('commote'
in Welsh) of Gwynlwg, consisting of the area next
to the coast, became known as Wentloog (a corruption of
Gwynlwg).
The
name Stow in an Old English word for a "place of assembly"
or "holy place" and there is some evidence of
a Saxon presence the area. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records
that in 914-915 AD two Saxon earls defeated a major Viking
raid in the Severn Estuary. However a claim by the Newport
historian James Matthews that a fierce battle took place
in 918 AD at Newport, which he named "The Battle of
the Ford", is highly inaccurate. This claim is based
on one line from the Brut Y Tywysogion ('Chronicle
of the Princes' in English) which says that about that time
"the action of Dinas Newydd took place". However
the river Usk is not (and probably never was) fordable at
Newport or anywhere below Caerleon and it is not possible
to accurately identify Dinas Newydd with the later town
of Newport.
However the 'Chronicle of the Princes' does record that
about 971 AD "Edgar, king of the Saxons collected a
very great fleet at Caerleon upon Usk". Again the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle records that around 1049 AD Viking ships from
Ireland raided up the River Usk, and that, aided by Gruffydd,
the Welsh king, they defeated the Saxon bishop Ealdred.
After
the Norman invasion of 1066 AD the kingdoms of South Wales
were gradually taken over. Robert fitz Hamon, earl of Gloucester,
began the conquest of the lowland areas of Gwynlwg
and Morgannwg in the early 1090's. Robert de Hay
controlled land in southern Gwynlwg as a fief from
fitz Hamon, and it was possibly Robert de Hay who had a
motte (castle mound) built on Stow Hill. This is now buried
by spoil from the construction of a railway tunnel, near
the Springfield Unit of St Woolos Hospital. Sometime between
1094 and 1104 Robert de Hay granted the church of St Woolos
to Gloucester Abbey.
The
town of Newport appears to have been carved out of lands
forming part of the manor of Stowe, centred on Stow Hill.
The earliest map of Newport, dated 1750, shows the town's
boundaries cutting through existing fields. The Welsh historian
William Rees states:
"The
manor of Stowe had its manor-house with barn, oxhouse, pigeon
cotes and fishpond. The lord's share of the arable land
here was about 150 acres; it was not a large manor."
(1)
The
new town lay between Stow Hill and Newport Bridge, and there
may have been a wooden castle built either on or near the
site of the late medieval stone castle. A charter of 1132
by Robert the Consul, the illegitimate son of Henry I and
also earl of Gloucester, gifting land in Malpas to Montacute
Priory, refers to Novo Burgo (New Borough). An important
reason for establishing the new borough would be to control
the river crossing. The town also became a centre for trade
and as the chief market town for the area would useful to
the lord in the collection of tolls.
Newport
Castle was the administrative centre for Norman Lordship
created from the former cantref of Gwynlwg. The Lordship
of Gwynlwg was a 'Marcher Lordship' inheriting the
rights and privileges of the former Welsh rulers, and as
such the lord enjoyed many powers not available to most
English lordships.
In
1198 the Lordship passed into the hands of Prince John through
his wife Isabel. John became king in 1199 and soon after
divorced Isabel, but retained her lands until 1214, when
she remarried. The Lordship passed to the important de Clare
family in 1217 and remained with the de Clares until the
death of the then lord, Gilbert de Clare, in 1314 at the
Battle of Bannockburn.
Newport
suffered in the unrest involving the Welsh princes and the
English barons. During a conflict in 1265 Simon de Montfort
devastated the area and "spared neither women nor children".
Again in 1296, sixty-six burgages were laid waste during
warfare involving the Welsh lord Morgan ap Llywelyn.
In
1317 the de Clare lands were split between Gilbert de Clare's
three sisters. The second sister, Margaret, received the
Marcher Lordship of Gwynlwg which became known as
the Lordship of Newport. She had married Hugh Audley, an
important knight at the court of Edward II. However the
elder de Clare sister, Eleanor, had married Hugh Despenser
the Younger and he seized control of Gwynlwg and
Newport. Disputes over the territorial ambitions of Hugh
Despenser became involved with the conflict between leading
barons and Edward II, and in 1321 Hugh Audley, together
with his other brother-in-law, Roger Damory, besieged Newport
Castle with a large force. After four days the castle fell.
Other towns and castles belonging to Hugh Despenser were
also taken and considerable damage occurred. At Newport
barns were burnt and 300 oak timbers were ordered to repair
houses and fortalices (outworks) within the castle. (2)
Following
the defeat of Hugh Audley and other barons at the Battle
of Boroughbridge in 1322, Hugh Despenser re-acquired his
lands including the Lordship of Newport. In 1324 Despenser
secured many privileges (including freedom from tolls and
other customary dues) for seven Welsh boroughs, one of which
was Newport. In 1327 Edward II was deposed and Hugh Despenser
was executed, and Hugh Audley re-acquired the Lordship of
Newport.
On
the death of Hugh Audley in 1347 he was succeeded by his
son-in-law Ralph Stafford, first earl of Stafford. Staffords
remained lords of Newport until 1521, when Edward Stafford,
3rd duke of Buckingham, was executed, although there were
long periods when the lords were minors, and Stafford lands
were "farmed out" by the king until the lord became
of age.
In
1372 Ralph Stafford died and his lands were inherited by
his son, Hugh, second earl of Stafford. It was Hugh Stafford
who granted the Austin Friars a friary in Newport in 1377
and also gave Newport its first proper charter in 1385.
It is not known when the first stone castle was built in
Newport, but it is likely to have been in the 14th century.
Hugh Stafford died in 1386 and was succeeded by his grandson,
Thomas Stafford, who was still a minor. The Stafford estates
were controlled during the minority by Thomas Woodstock,
duke of Gloucester. Thomas Stafford died in 1392 and his
younger brother William succeeded. William died in 1395
and was succeeded by his brother Edmund, the fifth earl
of Stafford.
In
1394 Richard II visited Newport, on his way to Haverfordwest
to sail on an expedition to Ireland.
Edmund
was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury in July 1403. In
the same year Newport and Newport Castle were devastated
during the rebellion of Owain Glyndwr. The lordship of Newport
was said to have no value to the lord because all was burnt,
destroyed and wasted. (3) Also in 1403 the mayor of Bristol
was ordered to send large quantities of food to soldiers
based in Newport.
During
the minority of the next earl, Humphrey Stafford, work began
on emergency repairs to the castle and the castle ditch
was cleared of bushes, as there were rumours of rebels in
the area. In 1422 Humphrey was granted control of his estates
and in 1427 he renewed Newport's Charter.
More
work continued on the castle. There was work on the South
Tower in 1435 and much more work on the castle chambers,
other castle buildings and the north curtain wall in 1447-1448.
By 1452 the main building works were complete and in 1456/7
the castle was being cleaned in preparation by Humphrey,
who had been created 1st duke of Buckingham in 1444. Humphrey
died at the Battle of Northampton in 1460, when fighting
for the Lancastrian king Henry VI. He was succeeded by his
grandson, Henry Stafford, who was a minor, and the custody
of Stafford estates was again farmed out, originally to
Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, and in 1462 to Sir William
Herbert of Raglan Castle, later to be created earl of Pembroke.
Herbert
appears to have greatly improved the income from the Lordship
of Newport, which in part helped to cover the cost of the
building work at Raglan Castle. Between 1465 and 1468 he
made a net annual profit from the lordship of Newport about
£385 - above the annual farm of £100 he was
paying the Exchequer. He also imprisoned a number of officials
in Newport Castle until a backlog of unpaid debts was cleared.
(4)
William
Herbert, earl of Pembroke, was killed in July 1469 after
the Battle of Edgecote and his lands, including the Stafford
estates in South Wales, were seized by Richard Neville,
earl of Warwick. It was the earl of Warwick who authorised
in November 1469 payments for the "making of the ship
at Newport". Control of the lordship of Newport changed
hands on a number of occasions during the next few years.
The earl of Warwick was killed at the Battle of Barnet in
1471, and in 1473 Henry Stafford, second duke of Buckingham
came into his inheritance.
In
1476 the second duke reissued a charter to Newport, and
also permitted the burgesses of Newport to build a jail
for their own use. This may be the jail known to have been
above the West Gate of the town. It is possible that this
West Gate was a new building replacing an earlier West Gate
at the top of Skinner Street.
The
second duke was executed by Richard III in 1483. During
the minority of his son, Edward Stafford, third duke of
Buckingham, the Lordship of Newport came into the hands
of Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke and duke of Bedford, who
in 1485 married Katherine Wydevill, the widow of the second
duke of Buckingham. It is Jasper Tudor who is credited with
the building of the tower of St Woolos Church, and it may
be his stone statute that still remains on the tower. Jasper
died in 1495, and amongst his bequests was a sum of twenty
shillings to the Austin Friars at Newport.
The
third duke of Buckingham came into his inheritance in 1498,
In 1500 the duke had a survey undertaken of his lands -
but the mayor and burgesses refused an offer to "farm"
his rents and revenue from Newport for a sum of £32,
that had been in the value of the farm during the reign
of Henry VI, claiming it was only worth £20. Thus
it may be at the end of the 15th century Newport was in
decline though it could also be because of administrative
lapses in the collection of revenue. In 1521 the duke was
executed for treason and his lands then were seized by the
crown.
The
population of medieval Newport is not known. There were
about 250 burgages (units of land held by the burgesses)
but not all of them would have had houses, and not all dwellings
were on burgage plots. The population must have varied with
the black death, and after attacks such as the Gylndwr destruction
of the town in 1403. Possibly there would have been a population
of about 1000 in more stable times.
Newport was a market town, and trade would have been complemented
by small holdings in the borough, a corn mill, and fishing.
The survival of the name Skinner Street suggests that once
there was a tanning industry. Newport was not a major port
and goods such as wool, designated as staple goods for duty
purposes, had to be exported via "staple ports"
such as Carmarthen. Overseas trade in the Severn was dominated
by Bristol but it is likely that considerable smuggling
took place. Newport held an annual fifteen-day fair, beginning
on the 9th August (the Vigil of St Lawrence), and the town
had many legal rights granted by charter. The reeve (mayor)
and burgesses had their own gild to run the affairs of the
borough and in particular its commercial activities. There
was a shire-hall, somewhere near the town quay. The main
importance of the town was control of the mouth of the Usk,
the bridge controlling the land routes, and the presence
of the castle, which was the lord's administrative centre
for an independent marcher lordship.
(1)
William Rees in "Medieval Gwent". Journal of the
British Archaeological Association Volume 35 (1930) page
204
(2) Calendar of Close Rolls 15 Edward II. Volume 1318-1323
page 440
(3) Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem 1-6 Henry IV. Volume
XVIII 1399-1405 page 272
(4) Carole Rawcliffe The Staffords, Earls of Stafford and
Dukes of Buckingham 1394-1521 (1978) page 124
©
Bob Trett 2007
