Series FT1 - Family trust papers

The family trust papers derive from two trusts, Voelas and Plasnewydd.

John Griffith (2) of Garn was one of the trustees for the estate of his feckless brother-in-law, Cadwallader Wynne the younger of Voelas, during his life and after his death in 1732. After the death of Cadwallader Wynne's father in 1719, the Court of Chancery ordered the deduction of a large proportion of the estate rents, leaving him with a reduced income. J.G. managed to settle with the creditors and to get the estate out of Chancery. The estate was so impoverished, however, that C.W. and his wife, Jane, had become entirely dependent on the charity of her brother and mother for their survival and died heavily in debt. Inevitably disputes arose between the family and the trustees. C.W.'s son, Watkin Wynne, had to sell part of the estate to J.G. in 1747 to cover expenses incurred in a Chancery suit concerning administration of the estate of his father-in-law, Richard Clayton, deceased. The problems involved J.G. (2) and his son, J.G. (3), in arbitration and lawsuits which continued for many years afterwards.

John Wynne Griffith experienced similar difficulties when, in 1805, his brother-in-law, Robert Watkin Wynne, appointed him as a trustee for the sale and subsequent financial administration of the indebted Plasnewydd estate. John Wynne Griffith was also administrator, after the death of his wife, Jane, of the estate of his deceased mother-in-law, Mary Wynne, which included Bryn y neuadd and Varchwel. The main Plasnewydd estate was sold to Sarah Heaton in 1807-1808, and was thereafter renamed Plas Heaton. Griffith family letters reveal that the widow, Anna Sobieski Wynne, and her children were left without adequate financial provision. J.W.G. was obliged to ensure that debts were repaid and to fulfil her requests to meet expenses incurred by her family out of the estate funds. Lawsuits were instigated, centred around creditors' claims against the Wynne family and the trustees, trustees' attempts to recover money from debtors, trustees' complaints against each other on grounds of non-co-operation, and the question of entitlement to the property of Mary Wynne. Garthmeilio seems to have been subject to similar problems. Letters to J.W.G. from the agent, John Lloyd of Glyn Nannau, show how many tenants were in arrears, with properties in disrepair. By 1814, Garthmeilio was in Chancery, but both it and Bryn y neuadd appear to have been retained by Robert Watkin Wynne's son, John, and ultimately inherited by the Parr Lynes family of Tooley Park, Leicestershire.