The Welsh Hileys

There has always been a concentration of Hileys and Highleys  living in south Wales. 

Stephen Archer's Surname Atlas shows the historical distribution of surnames in Great Britain in the 1881 census. Approximately 10% of all the Hileys/Highleys recorded in the census lived in Monmouthshire. 

The Atlas shows 74 Hileys living in Monmouthshire out of a total of 758 Hileys in England and Wales, second only to Yorkshire West Riding with 261 Hileys. But in a calculation of population density Hiley comes out first in Monmouthshire with a figure of 35 Hileys per 100000 population.

For the surname Highley there were 59 Highleys living in Monmouthshire out of a total of 479 Highleys living in England and Wales, in third place behind Yorkshire West Riding and Lancashire. Again Highley came out first in the population density calculation with a figure of 28 Highleys per 100000 population.

Francis Hiley, the Baptist minister who featured in the last post, was a member of a long-established family in Monmouthshire. Members of his family worship in the Chapel in Llanwenarth to this day. 

The Dictionary of Welsh Biography states that Francis's father was of German extraction and there is a strong oral history passed down that there is German ancestry in the family. This Hiley family tree has been traced back before Francis Hiley the minister to Francis Hyla who was buried locally in 1704. He was a 'Refiner' in a forge and other family members worked in iron industries, some known as 'Forgemen'. 

Not far from where the Hileys were living at this time was the village of Tintern. The first forges in Tintern date from the 1560s and Tintern became known for producing the best wire in the country. By 1600 the wireworks were the largest industrial enterprise in Wales, employing hundreds of people. Skilled workers were brought from Germany to Tintern. Known in the village as ‘strangers’, they took five years to train up local men and perfect the art of ‘wire drawing’. (From 'Wye valley - the Angidy Trail')

Iron Forge at Tintern, c. 1794
Drawn by T. Hearne. (Monmouth Museum)

There is further related family history that the Hylas were originally involved in ironworking, and may have been recruited from Germany because of their skills, particularly in 'wire drawing'. The original forge closed in 1678 and workers went to other iron industries in Shropshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire.

A descendant of Francis Hiley is a member of the Hiley Y-DNA Project, already mentioned in this Blog. Currently there are 5 other members in the same genetic group, but it has not been possible so far to connect these members and find a common ancestor.