The Buckley Family

Scandal – Basil Valentin & Rose Buckley

The Llanelli Buckleys are remembered for their famous brewery and can trace their roots back to Lancashire.

Parish Registers show that Jonathan Buckley married around 1671. His son, also called Jonathan, married at Prestwick Church in 1721. The second Jonathan Buckley had a son named James, described as ‘of Courthill’ who was born in 1723.

James had a son named Mark Buckley who was born in 1743 and married his namesake Alice Buckley at Oldham Parish Church on 14th April 1770 and they had 11 children. Mark, described as weaver, fustian, manufacturer and farmer in later years became an innkeeper, turning his home on Sholver Moor, Oldham, into a public house called The Trough.

The first child of Mark and Alice Buckley was Esther who was born out of wedlock and died before they married in 1770. Their second child was James, born in 1770 (after they married). Mark and Alice had another son named John (1774-1850) and eight other children.

James Buckley grew up to be an itinerant Wesleyan preacher and probably met Maria Child on his first visit to Llanelli. Known as the Reverend James he is reputed to have nearly drowned trying to cross the river at Loughor. In recent years the public house at the junction of Corporation Road and Borough Road, originally called The Corporation Hotel, was renamed The Reverend James by the brewery to commemorate the fact.

In 1796 the Reverend James Buckley was posted to Brecon where he was said to be very successful and embarked on a missionary tour through Radnorshire, Montgomery and parts of Herefordshire and Shropshire. In 1798 he married Maria Child and took up an appointment in Norfolk. Maria was said to be a dutiful wife, following him around the country and coping with the deaths of four of their children.

Their son, another James Buckley (1802-83), married Elizabeth Wedge and they lived at Penyfai, which was built by her father Joshua Thomas Wedge. Their other son John Mark was troublesome to them and ran away to sea and was killed in the Crimea War. They had three surviving daughters, Elizabeth, Catherine and Maria.

Son of Preacher James Buckley James married Elizabeth Wedge and lived at Penyfai. His sister Maria married James Wilson of Bath, and one of their children was James Buckley Wilson, the Architect.

James Buckley, 1802-1883

He married Elizabeth Wedge

Maria (Child) Buckley died aged 58 in May 1831 and her brother Henry died in August of the same year, aged 60. Both were living at Furnace House. Maria’s husband, James Buckley (the Itinerant Wesleyan Preacher), was living at Cilfig House when he died in 1839. Maria’s sisters did not marry as they were still children when they died.

James Buckley (husband of Maria Child) retired in 1832 and lived at Cilfig House until he died in 1839 aged 68 years. When the Rev James Buckley died in 1839 his son (known as James Buckley senior), took on responsibility for the brewery, which prospered under his management. James and his wife Elizabeth had nine children and he became a prominent figure in the social and political affairs of the town. He was also interested in floriculture, horticulture and the rearing of pedigree poultry and cattle. He built up a large estate and was instrumental in introducing the latest technology to try to improve the quality of dairy products.

James and Elizabeth’s children married into other Llanelli gentry families, thus linking the Wedge, Child, Buckley, Roderick and Nevill families.

James Buckley of Penyfai, 1835-1895

This painting is at Parc Howard Museum and Art Gallery