Main Site Index Advertisers Index Webmaster
St Peter's, Carmarthen
St Peter's is Carmarthen’s original parish church. The exact date of its foundation is unknown, but recorded history dates St Peter’s to the reign of Henry I (1100-1135). The earliest mention of St Peter's is found in the Chronicle of Battle Abbey – It records that the church was conferred upon Battle Abbey by Henry I “in the time of Abbot Ralph” (1107-1124).
A Celtic pre-Norman church may have originally stood on the site of the present church. The church lies just inside the west gate of the Roman walls of Moridunum (Roman Carmarthen) and the churchyard appears to have been circular in origin, a characteristic of Celtic practice.
The first recorded vicar was Richard ap John in 1278. Saint Peter’s is one of the largest churches in the Diocese of Saint David’s being 52 metres from west porch to east window and 15 metres wide across nave and south aisle. It consists of a west tower, nave, chancel, south aisle and a Consistory Court. It is built of local red sandstone and grey shale.
Parts of the tower, nave and chancel date from the 13th century. In the porch stands a Roman altar. A 13th century stone coffin lid can be found nearby. Memorials line the church's walls and date from 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Buried in the chancel is Walter Devereux, First Earl of Essex (1539-1576), father of one of Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite courtiers.
Also buried in the chancel is Charlotte Augusta Catherine Dalton (d. 1832 aged 27, grand-daughter of King George III and his first wife, Hannah Lightfoot (married in 1759). Sharing her tomb is her niece, Margaret Augusta Prytherch (d. 1839 aged 8), great-grand-daughter of the King. The large brick vaulted tomb, with a domed roof, situated in the centre of the chancel and directly in front of the altar, was found by archaeologists in September 2000 during restoration work. It was clearly marked with a stone memorial slab giving the family connections and dates. It is not known whether the burial was a secret affair but, certainly, no record was kept and knowledge of the burial was not handed down through the generations. The tomb and memorial had lay hidden under a tiled floor since the 1870s. The then Prince of Wales had fallen in love with Hannah Lightfoot, a London Quaker girl and daughter of a London linen-draper, and married her in complete secrecy at Kew on the outskirts of London on 17th April, 1759. They went on to have three children. Two years later, in 1761, now king, he married Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz who became his queen.
One of the King’s daughters by Hannah, Sarah, married James Dalton of Carmarthen, a doctor and an officer of the East India Company. They had two daughters – Charlotte Augusta Catherine & Caroline.
Between the Chancel and the Consistory Court is the 18th century piped organ built by George Pike England on the orders of King George III. The King had originally planned that the organ should go to the Chapel Royal, Windsor, but he changed his mind and it finished up at St Peter’s.
The Consistory (or Bishop’s) Court was used for administering ecclesiastical law - it is the only one of its kind in Wales. On one of its walls is a memorial to Sir Richard Steele (1671-1729), dramatist, essayist, famous contributor to The Tatler, The Spectator and the Guardian. Steele was born in Dublin, educated at Charterhouse and Oxford, and was a friend of Joseph Addison and poet Alexander Pope. Sir Richard’s remains are buried in a tomb beneath the memorial. In October 2000 archaeologists, working in the church during restoration work, found part of his remains, his skull, perfectly preserved in a lead casket. It had been placed in the casket in 1876, whilst earlier work was being carried out on the chancel and consistory court. Workers had then found Steele’s remains and were astonished that the skull was in near-perfect condition. They decided to place it in a lead-lined casket within the tomb. Sir Richard’s second wife, poet Mary Scurlock, a native of Carmarthen, is buried in Poets Corner at Westminster Abbey.
Another memorial in the Consistory Court is to Bishop Robert Ferrar of St David’s, the Protestant Martyr. He had been brought many times to the Consistory Court at St Peter's in a trial for heresy before being sentenced to death. He was eventually burnt at the stake in Carmarthen’s market place (now Nott Square) on 30th March 1555. General Sir William Nott (after whom Nott Square was named), is commemorated on another tablet. He was a notable soldier who was buried in the churchyard in 1845 after a distinguished career in India and Afghanistan.
The tomb of Sir Rhys ap Thomas of Dynefwr (d. 1525) and his wife can be found in the South Aisle. Sir Rhys was instrumental in the accession of Henry Tudor (later Henry VII) to the throne of England in 1485. Thomas led an army of his tenantry from Carmarthenshire to fight for Henry at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard III was killed and Henry was crowned King on the battlefield. Rhys ap Thomas was knighted for his services and rewarded with vast estates. He was originally buried in the Church of the Grey Friars in Carmarthen but, on the Dissolution of the Friary in 1538, his tomb was moved to St Peter's and placed in the Chancel. It was moved for the second time to its present site in 1886.
Further information can be found at
http://www.stpeterscarmarthen.org/en/index.php
http://netministries.org/see/churches/ch08035
Main Site Index Advertisers Index Webmaster
© ARTdesigns 2002-2008 Page revised Monday April 07, 2008