WHEN looking through old newspaper clippings recently, I came across a short but extraordinary tale from the first half of the 19th century that took place in the grounds of a church in Llandovery.
The story takes place in 1832 at Llandingat Church in Llandovery.
Llandingat Church is a medieval church a short distance from the remains of Llandovery Castle. It is believed to have been built around the 14th century, as the nave has elements from that time and it is believed the chancel was built in the early 15th century. Around 80 per cent of the structure dates to pre-19th century times.
In 1833, the church was described by ‘Lewis’ as being ‘an ancient building, consisting of two spacious aisles, with a tower, but presents no interesting architectural details.’
Just a year prior to the description of the church, an article ran in the Carmarthen Journal on February 3, 1832, in which the cemetery alongside the church was to be prominently featured.
The article was headlined ‘Extraordinary discovery’ and it was a fascinating piece of news.
The article describes how the gravedigger at the church was excavating the ground earlier that week to prepare the grave of a friend who had died when his usual, mundane experience became a whirlwind of confusion.
As he was close to completing his dig, he hit something hard with his mattock – a tool similar to a pickaxe which is used for digging, prying and chopping.
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The gravedigger examined what he had hit and came across the boards of an ancient coffin. Confused and curious, he searched further and found what the article stated as ‘the partial remains of a body decomposed only from the head to the lower part of the abdomen, but in a perfect state of preservation from thence down.’
Understandably, the gravedigger was confused by this unusual site. He examined the decomposed parts and found a substance that resembled silver intermixed into the parts.
The gravedigger took a sample of the substance to a prominent local chemist along with part of the body.
The chemist was able to confirm that the substance contained mercury. The discovery wowed the town, with the article stating: “…but how it got there, or what should so extraordinarily have transmogrified human flesh, appeared unaccountable; - old women wondered, children stared, and the whole town amazed, and the knowing ones of the place set their wits to work to elucidate the mystery.’
The article states that the town believes the mystery was partially solved with information provided by an elder resident of the town.
The resident said that an old gentleman by the name of Morgan was a resident in the town and worked as an attorney.
He was believed to have died suddenly from apoplexy – a cerebral haemorrhage or stroke – as he was said to have ‘retired to his bed in perfect health’ but in the early hours of the following morning was ‘discovered stretched a lifeless corpse.’
Following the discovery and the information, it became widely believed that he had in fact been killed by poison of some ‘mercurial preparation,’ as there was no way to attribute the appearance of the mercury mixed in with the remains to the supernatural or a chemical process after death.
The old man who told the tale said that it was believed he had been buried near to where the gravedigger was working and this lent further creed to the remains being those of the lawyer.
The remains became a bit of a morbid fixation in the town as part of the body and some of the mercury substance landed in the possession of a Mr Joseph Thomas of Llangadock.
Despite his family’s concerns with having the remains of a dead man in their house, he kept them at the property to allow for people to visit and see.
Unfortunately there are very few records available relating to this incident so I have been unable to conclude whether or not anything came of a potential investigation into the supposed poisoning.
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