In 1887 George Maddocks bought himself the Lordship of the Manor of Pentre Uchaf and Hendre, and promptly changed his name to Sior Madog. Though most manorial rights have been superseded or faded into obscurity he was not deterred in a bid to influence matters in favour of the local populace; or so he said. In actual fact he was a bit jealous of Sir Harold Scrimshaw of Hendre Hall. This was much bigger and posher than the Manor house, and Sir Harold was a Saesneg – an Englishman! Madog found out what the manorial court could do, and how much he could obtain in payments and fines. He had some stamps printed as evidence of payment on the documents. The rights that remained to the lord of the manor were rather obscure, but nevertheless he set to with zeal.

Sir Harold was a patron of the arts and had had quite a few notable guests at the hall, such as William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rosetti. Madog set an accommodation or guest tax called ‘Gobr Lletty’ at 240 pence. And as Sir Harold often went to London with his family and household he found himself having to pay ‘Gobr Gwarchadw’, a land custody payment fixed at 126 pence (half a guinea) per week charged for unoccupied property. Then there was ‘Gwestva’, derived from the quarterly payments of food and gifts to the lord of the manor, from those who could afford it. This exclusively applied to the Scrimshaws. It was fixed at 180 pence. An unusual payment was ‘Gwaddal’ and set at 300 pence. Basically a maiden resident in the manor could claim she had lost her virginity by being seduced and charmed to the point where she lost her ability to reason. Once the fine had been paid her virginity would be considered restored and her marriage prospects would be unimpeded. Again it was mainly the arty guests at the Hall who found themselves having to pay up. Unsurprisingly, having virginity restored meant some maidens would appear repeatedly. Then there was ‘Ebediw’ tax for land transfers. This was usually applied when transfer of ownership was intended for those outside the county, and was waived for local people. The payment however was set at 60 curt pennies. This is a medieval currency, a curt penny reckoned to be less than a legal penny. However no such coinage existed and banks couldn’t handle such payments. So while Madog couldn’t veto land transfers he could make it impossible to pay the fees.

Madog didn’t pocket the money. He helped towards the upkeep of a couple of schools and threw a big Midsummer Gala for the locals. When he died the manor was bought by Algernon Scrimshaw to prevent his family being victimised again.