| Title | Controversy over Crown rights in the parish of Llandegai (1811-1816), occasioned to a large extent by a letter sent to the Treasury by a somewhat scapegrace son of William Williams of Llandegai, most devoted and loyal of the Penrhyn servants. This led to a careful examination pf the grant of Uchaf to Richard, Lord Penrhyn (2Aug., 1784), and the submission of the whole Penrhyn evidence to an array of eminent counsel - Harrison, Dampier, Hargreaves, Plomer, Richards, and others - whose considered opinions weighed heavily in favour of the proprietary rights and against the Crown claims. In order to prevent repetition of the counsel's opinion, it will be well to quote the combined opinion of R. Gifford and J.S. Copley [later Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst] from Lincoln's Inn, 11 Nov. 1823: "We are of opinion that there is no sufficient evidence stated in the above case to establish the rights of the Crown to the common in the parish of Llandegai and that the long possession and repeated acts of ownership exercised by the Penrhyn family render it, in our judgement, impossible to hope for success in any proceedings to be instituted by the Crown to obtain possession of this property" (Gifford and Copley were Attorney and Solicitor General respectively at the time the opinion was given). |