In Wales the histories of book production and industry started following the sixteenth century Acts of Union. In 1586 print production in Wales was a collateral victim of the Star Chamber ban on regional printing. When the printing press finally arrived in Wales in the eighteenth century it was closely associated with the iron trade. The Industrial Revolution started in Wales in 1759 on the underdeveloped northern rim of the South Wales coalfield basin. The iron industry had two phases of development; when the second phase started in the 1780s South Wales was the largest iron producing region in the UK. At this time Edmund Jones wrote <italic>An Account of the Parish of Aberystruth </italic> (1779) and <italic>Apparitions of Spirits</italic> (1780), both of which document the narratives of a pre-industrial community. At the end of this period the Welsh print-trade was dominated by Nonconformist printers who were particularly hostile to the novel. Despite this opposition <italic> Twm Shon Catti,</italic> the first Welsh novel, was printed in 1828. In the 1840s, John Nixon started to sell Welsh steam-coal to the French market. The steam-coal export trade was so successful that it rapidly changed the technology and science of mining, and in consequence a number of institutions grew around the industry. Meanwhile the miners themselves were organising and they established well-stocked miners' libraries which they used to educate themselves. In this period the centre of the Welsh print-trade moved to the industrial coalfield, and as it did so the newspaper became the dominant literary form. In the 1880s, Joseph Keating worked in a number of collieries in the Aberdare Valley. While Keating is justly famous for being the first Welsh industrial novelist of the twentieth century, he wrote in the older literary tradition which has been outlined in this thesis.

This thesis seeks to examine the process of development of Swansea from Norman planted town, with a market and a harbour, to an industrial centre and port of international significance. It will consider the impact of industrial and commercial growth on the infra structure of the medieval settlement, and the pressures and stresses on life in the town arising out of the influx of a largely Welsh-speaking body of immigrants in search of work. It is argued that Swansea was special in the Welsh urban context, because of the strategies it was forced to develop at the end of the eighteenth century to cope with enforced change, and also because of its multifunctional nature. Additionally, the town is of considerable interest because of the presence of two apparently conflicting functions - industry and resort - the interaction between which may illuminate the relative importance of each. These issues are approached in this thesis as follows. First, an attempt is made at estimating the rate of growth of the population of Swansea from about 1700 (the consequence of economic and industrial development) and the proportion and provenance of immigrants. Secondly, the motivation of those leaving the land and the difficulties awaiting them in a Swansea ill-equipped to receive them are examined, as are the strategies adopted by the town to assimilate them. Next, the incidence of disease and causes of death in conditions of urban overcrowding, or food shortage, are investigated. Lastly, a modest evaluation of the appearance and economy of the town, and its marketing strategy, is attempted through an examination of contemporary plans, pictures, topographies and trade directories and these sources are considered in the wider context of an emerging consciousness during the eighteenth century of the culture, language and history of Wales.

This thesis draws on the extensive, underexplored records of the Court of Great Sessions for the period 1730-1830 to examine the nature and extent of Welsh women’s involvement in a range of serious crimes. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, it provides an in-depth analysis of the characteristics of women indicted for various criminal activities, including crimes against the person and against the public peace, and offers explanations for their involvement, as far as the records allow. Information regarding the age, social position, and marital status of the female defendants has been compiled and analysed, and the extent to which these factors affected judicial outcomes is demonstrated. The broad geographical and chronological scope of this study also provides an insight into links between levels and types of crime involving women and their location, as well as changes over time. It is argued that there were distinctly gendered elements in the offences committed by women, the motivations attributed to them, and their treatment by the courts. There is no comparable study of female crime in the period encompassed by this thesis. Many historians of crime have wrongly assumed that experiences in Wales and England were the same, and both countries have often been analysed interchangeably. Welsh criminals, women included, have rarely been considered in their own right. Studies of crime in ‘England and Wales’ have too often failed to fully appreciate the distinctiveness of Wales. This thesis addresses these shortcomings, demonstrating that Welsh experiences of crime were unique in many respects. In so doing, it provides an unparalleled contribution to our understanding of female crime and gender relations in Wales during the long eighteenth century.