Mary (Nancy) Williams

Names: the elder woman is Mary (Nancy) Williams, formerly Buckler; her youngest daughter is Mary Buckler (later Godfrey). When could two women both be “Mary Buckler”? See Two Mary Bucklers? Name and identity timeline.

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Mary (Nancy) Williams (Mrs Buckler; 10 August 1913 – 26 March 1983) was born at Great House Farm (Tŷ Mawr), Llandough, and lived there all her life. The family’s established title case is that the 1877 arrangement took effect in 1928 and Parcel A covered the full house/quarrying estate: farmhouse/buildings, barn, stable and yard west of the house, garden, forest north of the house, and the south-east ground later registered as VG41. Parcel B was the separate eastern agricultural fields. She was the daughter of John Williams and married Frederick Buckler in 1936; they had seven children, among them William, the defendant in BP Properties Ltd v Buckler. She claimed the full Parcel A through the 1877 agreement, including the north forest and south-east green ground as well as the farmhouse/buildings and garden. After the 1955 seizure, she resisted removal from the occupied house/buildings/garden group and refused the later tenancy offers. That practical defence of the remaining occupied centre does not narrow her underlying title claim to it. After Frederick’s death in 1967 she reverted to her maiden name, Williams. Her own account is Mary (Nancy) Williams’s statement (c. 1974).

Method and evidence key: Main Page · title test · working theory

Chronology

• 1877 — Bute sells the house parcel to Daniel Thomas; her grandfather takes tenancies from both [record pending: EV-0006; PENDING: EV-0008] (1877 agreement)
• 1908 — her grandfather dies; her father takes over the farm (John Williams)
• 1916 — Bute yearly tenancy to her father; the 1989 Commission decision records the family’s occupation from 1916 [record pending: EV-0014] (1916 tenancy)
• 1928 — last rent to Alfred Thomas; on the family’s established case, the 1877 arrangement then took effect and the full Parcel-A house/quarrying estate passed to the Williams family (1928)
• 1936 — marries Frederick Buckler, who comes to live at the farmhouse (marriage; press report, Llandough Church: EV-0230, snippet only)
• 1938–39 — WGR acquires Bute’s interest; fields-only tenancy to her father [record pending: EV-0019] (1939 tenancy)
• 1944 — Frederick becomes farm manager for her father (1944)
• 1949 — the agricultural tenancy/re-grant concerned Parcel B; in the family’s case, this was the first later failed attempt to make Mary’s separate Parcel-A occupation appear permissive [record pending: EV-0025] (1949 tenancy)
• 1950–52 — the family papers, including the farm agreement, are taken from the blanket box [record pending: EV-0026] (papers taken)
• 1955 — order against Frederick alone; on 4 July, while WGR enforced Parcel-B possession, the family’s established account is that the Parcel-A north forest and south-east green were also seized [record pending: EV-0032; PENDING: EV-0034]. Mary retained the occupied farmhouse/buildings/garden group after fierce resistance; this did not mean the whole Parcel A remained with her (1955 order)
• 1959 — refuses a WGR tenancy of the farmhouse and garden and asserts ownership through her grandfather (1959 refusal)
• 1962 — Cardiff County Court order against Frederick and Mary, 11 December [record pending: EV-0041] (1962 order)
• 1965 — 2 March: refuses a weekly tenancy of the farmhouse and garden at £2 offered to “Mrs Williams”; not signed, no rent paid, and the estate treated her occupation as adverse from then (WGR agents’ letter recited in the 1987 judgment, catalogue GHF-E009-18) [record pending: EV-0039] (1965 offer)
• c.1965–67 — rumoured sale by Frederick’s eldest son (rumoured sale)
• 1967 — widowed; continues “in occupation of the farmhouse and land surrounding it” (Frederick’s death)
• 1969 — WGR conveys to BP Pension Trust; the conveyance source has not yet been retrieved, though the 1987 judgment treats the sale as including the farmhouse and garden; our case: only Parcel B, plus an interest in the 1962 order on Parcel A, passed [record pending: EV-0043] (conveyances)
• 1974 — 3 July: pleads ownership and the Limitation Act 1939; adjourned part-heard, never relisted [record pending: EV-0049] (1974 action)
• 1974 — 19 September – November: leave to enforce the 1962 order; after the hearing of 4 November the warrant was withdrawn, at a date before 25 November (Court of Appeal 1987, para 16; warrant)
• 1974 — 31 October: BP licence letters to “Mrs Buckler (Mrs Williams)”; never accepted [record pending: EV-0050] (licence letters)
• 1975 — BP Pension Trust conveys to BP Properties Ltd (conveyances)
• 1982–83 — BP applies for first registration (WA231076, WA240304) while she is in occupation [record pending: EV-0065] (first registration)
• 1983 — dies at the farmhouse, 26 March (below)
• 1983–92 — her son William inherits and defends the case (William · BP v Buckler)

See also: Mary (Nancy) Williams’s statement · Williams / Buckler family · Master timeline · Evidence Library

Name/location reference: Great House Farm — Name & Location Variations (historical spellings and Llandough-juxta-Penarth location forms).