History :: Sker House - The Maids Sker - Martha Howells (b.1771)

Whilst researching the history of Sker House a third romance connected with the house was stumbled upon by Leslie Evans. Details of it he was able to obtain, but a far fuller version exists in a copy of a 'Western mail' newspaper from 1936.

This was written by an E.W.Pearce and was thought that it referred to Elizabeth Williams, the original Maid of Sker, yet found to be not the case. This maid of Sker was born some two years after the death of Elizabeth's father, and although it is generally supposed that Morgan Howells immediately succeeded him as the tenant at Sker, this is not necessarily the case. The earliest mention of him living there comes in 1772.

Armed with this material therefore, the story of Martha Howells, "The Other Maid of Sker" can now be told.

Old Morgan Howells arrived at Sker a fairly well-to-do gentleman farmer, with several sons and two daughters named Mary and Martha. The latter had been born in 1771, and as the girls grew up it was Morgan's determination that they should marry well. The eldest, Mary, in accordance with his wishes married Jenkin John, a prosperous tenant farmer from Pwllygarth farm, Kenfig Hill, but Martha fell in love.

Unfortunately the object of her affection was a humble labourer named William David employed on the Nichols' estate at Merthyr Mawr. Once Morgan found out he was furious, and not only forbade the liaison, but took steps to confine Martha to the house to prevent its continuance.

Martha, as old Lena Rees recalled her was a "handsome" woman, "rather above middle stature, and extremely fond of pleasure in her day, viz, dancing, etc". She was also endowed with the spirit, energy, and sheer bloody-mindedness that characterised the Howells familly in those days. William had won her heart as she had won his, and nothing was going to stop her claiming him for a husband.

Somehow or other the two contrived to keep in contact, and between them hatched a plot to elope. Accordingly, in the early hours of a November morning in 1793 Martha slipped out of the darkened house to where William was waiting, and the two made their way to the nearby village of Newton.

The harbour and the town at Porthcawl were still in the future, but there was at Newton, a small port that carried on a thriving trade in coal with Bristol and other small creeks on the opposite side of the channel. It was a Bristol boat which now lay there on which William had booked them a passage.

The craft would not have been large - probably less than 20 tons - and would have been flat-bottomed. At low tide its cargo of coal would have been heaped upon the beach around a tall stake driven into the sand.

When the tide rose it covered the mound of coal, but using the top of the stake as a marker, the captain of the vessel would have anchored as near to it as possible and loaded his cargo when the tide ebbed sufficiently to leave his craft high and dry. His coal safely aboard, the captain was waiting only for the tide to rise suffiently to lift his boat off the sand, when he was attracted by a hail from the shore. There stood a furious Morgan Howells who had now discovered his daughter's "escape".

Angrily he demanded that the captain put her ashore immediately! The old salt however stood his ground, unmoved even by a proffered bribe of 10 shillings! As the tide rose that little extra, the boat lifted from the sand and turning her bow towards the open sea, set sail for Bristol with William and Martha still aboard.

Old Morgan was not finished yet though. Riding to Pyle Inn, he caught the next mail coach bound for Bristol, and the race was on! Mail coaches boasted an average speed of 10mph - laughable today maybe, but probably far better than would be managed by the battered old collier vessel in which the lovers were travelling.

Moreover, although taking a more direct route, the latter was at the mercy of the wind and weather, whilst (barring accidents) the coach, whilst making a more roundabout journey to cross by the ferry at Chepstow, would almost certainly get to its destination on time.

Morgan's chase therefore was not made such a forlorn hope, but when he arrived at Bristol docks it was to find the vessel unloading at the quay, and his enquiries failed to discover where the lovers had gone. In fact William and Martha had made their way to the fashionable resort of Bath and, as the parish registers of the church of St.James record, exchanged their vows there on 10th November.