Hamer family, of Glanyrafon

Family

Hamer family, of Glanyrafon

The Glanyrafon estate was formed and extended through a combination of inheritances and purchases. Before 1804, a great part of the estate belonged to the Price family of Lloran Isaf, Denbighshire. Maurice ap Robert ap William acquired lands in Lloran in 1559 by a grant from the Earl of Leicester, which was then inherited by the Griffith branch of the family. Following the pre-nuptial settlement, dated 1730, of Jane Griffith and Robert Powell the land devolved upon the Powell family. In 1804 a deed of partition was executed to the effect that the Llansilin portion of the estate was settled for the use of Lawton Parry of Oldport, and the Welshpool portion was settled, according to the will of Robert Lloyd of Swanhill, Shropshire, in trust to Watkin Williams for the use of Jane and Annabella Lloyd.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century the Glanyrafon estate formed a greater part of the township of Bryn in the parish of Llanyblodwel, Shropshire. A mansion house was erected at this time by the then owner, Lawton Parry, sheriff of Montgomery in 1795, and mayor of Oswestry in 1802. After his death in 1820, the estate was devised to his sister Margaret Parry, the last member of the family. Following her death in 1827, the property was devised in trust to John Hamer, son of David Hamer of The Weeg, Montgomeryshire, by his then wife, Mary (nee Lloyd), who died upon the birth of her son in 1824. David Hamer was appointed guardian and trustee to John Hamer, and according to the will of Margaret Parry, lands in the township of Hem, Montgomeryshire, and the township of Marton, Shropshire, were devised to the use of David Hamer during his life, but most lands in Denbighshire, Shropshire and Montgomeryshire were devised to John Hamer. Other lands in the parish of Meifod, Montgomeryshire, had been inherited by Jenkin Parry through the will of Robert Parry of Kynnant, 1743, and devolved upon Lawton Parry and later upon John Hamer as part of the Glanyrafon estate.

John Parry Hamer inherited the estate after his father's death, and continued to purchase lands including Garth Fach, Cefn y Braich, Priddbwll and Woodhill in Denbighshire, Shropshire and Montgomeryshire. He died in 1901 seised in fee simple of a considerable part of the property which was then devised to his son, Captain John Lawton Parry Hamer.

Most of the Glanyrafon estate was sold after the death of John Lawton Parry Hamer in 1939, although parts of the estate had been previously sold, including Lloran Uchaf and Cefnymaes in 1912, and parts of the Glanyrafon farm in 1914.