LLANGENDEIRN (LLAN-GYNDEYRN), a parish, in the hundred of KIDWELLY, union of CARMARTHEN and county of CARMARTHEN, SOUTH
WALES, 5 miles (S. E.) from Carmarthen, on the road through Llannon to Swansea; containing 2624 inhabitants. The name is
derived from 66 Llan," a church, and " Cyndeyrn " a Welsh saint, son of Arthog ab Ceredig, and whose festival occurs on
the 25th of July. The place is thought to have been anciently the residence either of some of the native princes of South
Wales, or of some chieftain of distinction in the earlier periods of Welsh history; and the remains of an old mansion,
called Hen Bias, or " the Old Hall," which have been converted into a stable, appear to confirm that opinion. The lands
are, with the exception of a very small portion, inclosed and in a good state of cultivation; and the substratum of the
soil consists of various valuable minerals, chiefly coal, iron, and limestone, the procuring of which affords employment
to many of the inhabitants. A ridge of excellent limestone extends across the parish, in a direction parallel with the
strata of coal, which rest upon it; iron-ore is found, and there are also strata of very fine black and speckled marble.
The limestone is worked to a very large extent for the supply of the adjacent districts; the marble, which is of fine
quality for chimney- pieces and other ornaments, is sent from the quarries in great quantities to Bristol, and to
different parts of the principality; and the coal is also wrought on a considerable scale. All the marble burns into white
lime, the bitumen with which it is coloured being sublimed by calcination. A fair is held annually on the 5th of August.
The living is a perpetual curacy, endowed with £600 royal bounty, and £1200 parliamentary grant; net income, £88; patron
and impropriator, Rees Goring Thomas, Esq. The church, dedicated to St. Cyndeyrn, is a spacious and plain edifice; and the
churchyard is one of the finest and most agreeably situated in the country. There are two places of worship for
Independents, two for Baptists, and one for Methodists. A school for the gratuitous education of poor children was endowed
by Mrs. Catherine Goldfrap, a native of the parish, in 1784, with money then producing £25 a year, but which, from the
reduction of the rate of interest, now yields only £21. 17. 6., to which Sir Robert William Clayton, Bart., adds £3. 3.
per annum; there are 80 boys and girls in the school, 45 of whom are taught by means of the endowment, and the rest at the
expense of their parents. About 60 children are instructed in another day school, at their parents' cost; and there are
eight Sunday schools, appertaining to the dissenters and conducted gratuitously, in which are 470 males and females. Glynn
Abbey, a private house in the parish, is supposed to occupy the site of an ancient religious establishment, of which there
are no remains, and of which the only existing memorial is the name. Formerly there were numerous seats in the parish,
within which no fewer than seven magistrates were resident; but they have all been deserted by their proprietors, and most
of them converted into farm-houses.