St Fagan, Glamorgan

Description
Fagan, St, a village, a township, and a parish in Glamorgan. The village stands on the river Ely, 2 miles SW of Llandaff, and 4 W of Cardiff; it has a station on the G.W.B., and a post, money order^ and telegraph office under Cardiff. The township comprises 2175 acres; population, 490. The parish comprises also the township of Llanilterne. Acreage, 3250; population, 587. St Fagan, after whom the parish is called, is said by Bede to have been one of four missionaries sent from Kome by Bishop Eleuthery in 180 A.I>. at the request of the local British king or chieftain, Lleurwg (Sfc Lucius), to baptize himself and his people, and to have settled at St Pagans, where he established a cor or seminary for training men in the Christian faith. He is said by the earliest historians of the church in Britain to have been the first to administer the sacrament of baptism in these islands of the west. The manor and castle belonged to Sir Peter Ie Sore of Peterston Castle, and to his descendants for several 'generations, down to Sir Matthew Ie Sore, at whose death it passed into the hands of Sir Peter Ie Vele, by his marriage 'with Sir Matthew's youngest daughter, towards the latter ' part of the 14th century. The Le Veles had previously occupied it for several generations. A rectangular oblong residence, having a series of gables of equal height on each side, which has a picturesque appearance, was built by J. G. Gibbon, LL.D. of Pentrebane (Cefntrepayne) within the ward wall, now standing, of the old Norman keep in the reign of Elizabeth. It is called St Pagan's Castle, and is the Glamorganshire seat of Lord Windsor. A battle between the Welsh Royalists under Major-General Laugharne and the Parliamentary army under Colonel Horton was fought at St Fagan in 1648, the former being defeated. A great deal of the original Norman masonry remains in the present interesting church. Sfc Pagan's, including the parochial chapelry of Llanilterne, is a rectory in the diocese of Llandaff; gross value, £400 with residence. Patron, Lord Windsor. The church was restored in 1860, at a cost of £2000. There is a Calvinistic Methodist chapel, and a church and a Congregational chapel at Llanilterne.