St Ishmael's

"ISHMAEL'S (ST.), a parish in the hundred of RHÔS, county of PEMBROKE, SOUTH WALES, 5 1/2 Miles (W. by N.) from Milford, containing 527 inhabitants. It is situated on the northern shore of Milford Haven, and is separated from the parish of Herbrandston by Sandy haven. There are several respectable residences within its limits, though not entitled to notice as seats of importance: the principal is the neat residence of Mr. Roch, which is supposed to have been originally a grange belonging to Hubberston priory. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of St.David's, rated in the king's books at £6.12. 8 1/2., endowed with £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the King as Prince of Wales. The tithes are divided into three equal portions, of which one is appropriated to the corporation of the borough of Tewkesbury, another to the incumbent of that parish, and the third to the vicar of St. Ishmael's. The church is romantically situated in a deep sequestered valley, watered by a small estuary which falls into Milford Haven, a short distance below it. There are places of worship for Baptists and Independents. Immediately above the church is a tenement called Monks, supposed to have been connected with the priory of Hubberston. In the village is a remarkable tumulus, but nothing is known of its history, nor does it appear to have been opened. St. Ishmael's, it is said, was the final retreat of Caradoc of Llancarvan, the celebrated historian of Wales, who here spent the latter years of his life in retirement and seclusion, and, after his decease, was interred with great pomp in the cathedral church of St. David's. The average annual expenditure for the maintenance of the poor amounts to £304. 8." [From A Topographical Dictionary of Wales (S. Lewis, 1833).]