LLANISHEN (LLAN-ISAN), a parish, in the union of CARDIFF, hundred of KIBBOR, county of GLAMORGAN, SOUTH WALES, on the road
from Cardiff to Caerphilly, 34 miles (N.) from Cardiff; containing 418 inhabitants. Llanisben House, now fallen to decay,
was, for more than the last two centuries, the seat of the family of Lewis; it previously belonged to the Vaughans, the
heiress of which family was married to a younger son of the Levases of the Vann, ancestors of the Earl of Plymouth. New
House, the property of John Lewis, Esq., is a handsome modern seat, pleasantly situated at the southern' foot of a lofty
ridge of hills running in a direction from east to west in this part of the county. The living is a perpetual curacy,
endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £800 royal bounty; net income, £46; patrons, alternately, Earl of Plymouth
and C. K. Kemeys Tynte, Esq., the impropriators. The church, dedicated to St. Isan, is a neat structure, in the English
style of architecture. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. In 1728, Mary Lewis conveyed by deed a moiety
of the great tithes of the parish of Lisvane, in trust to certain parties, to the intent that they should out of the rents
and profits employ masters here and at Lisvane, at a salary of £5 each, to teach the poor children in both places, and
that the remainder should be employed in apprenticing them. These tithes, at present let for £70 per annum, are subject to
a payment of £10 to the perpetual curate: five pounds are yearly paid to the schoolmaster of this parish, for which he
instructs 10 free scholars in the vestry-room of the church, with about 20 others who pay; and one child is generally
apprenticed every year with a premium averaging £5 or £6. There is also a National day school, commenced in 1824, in which
twenty-five females are taught at the expense of the Rev. W. P. Lewis. Edward Morgan, by will in 1669, assigned a rent-
charge of £2. 12., to be distributed in bread among the poor and Thomas Lewis, Esq., in 1775, gave one of £4 to the
paupers in four almshouses, let by him to the parish; but this endowment has not been paid for about twelve years; and a
rent-charge of 13s. 4d., bequeathed by Matthew Pritchard, in 1623, for the benefit of the poor, is said to have been lost
by the river TM encroaching on the property. According to Leland, Richard William, otherwise Cromwell, afterwards Earl of
Essex, who was beheaded by order of Henry VIII., was born at the mansion of New House; but the circumstance is doubtful.
The water of a spring, called St. Dene's Well, is considered efficacious in the cure of scorbutic complaints.