NEWCHURCH, or LLAN-NEWYDD, a parish, in the lower division of the hundred of ELVET, union of CARMARTHEN and county of
CARMARTHEN, SOUTH WALES, 35 miles (N. w. by N.) from Carmarthen; containing 867 inhabitants. This place is stated to have
been the scene of a pitched battle which was fought, about the year 72, between the Britons and the Romans under the
command of Severinus, son of Severus, the Roman governor of Britain, who at that time resided at York. Severinus is
supposed to have fallen in this battle; and a stone, formerly on the road-side, but now removed and set up in the front
court of Traws-Mawr, is said to have marked the spot where the battle took place. This stone, which is noticed by Camden,
bore the inscription 66 Severini Fili Severi," the word sepulchrum or memo-rice being understood, and is described as "a
rude pillar, erected near the highway, flattish, five or six feet high, and about three feet broad," by the last editors
of Camden's Britannia, who, from the form of the letters and the rudeness of the stone, suspect it to be the epitaph of
some person of Roman descent, but of a later period; the inscription has since that time been mutilated, and the word
"fide is no longer legible, that part of the stone having been chipped off. The parish is situated on the banks of the
river Gwili, and on the turnpike- road from Carmarthen to Newcastle-Emlyn, and comprises a large extent of arable and
pasture land, which is fertile and in a good state of cultivation. The court leet for the hundred is held under Earl
Cawdor, at Bwlch Newydd, in the parish. The living is a perpetual curacy, endowed with £600 royal bounty, and £1400
parliamentary grant; net income, £96: the patronage and impropriation belong to the family of Mal-lock. The church, which
was entirely rebuilt in 1829, is a remarkably neat edifice; and there are places of worship for Independents and
Calvinistic Methodists. About 50 males and females are taught in a Sunday school belonging to the Established Church, and
about 60 in one appertaining to Methodists; both gratuitously conducted: and two rent-charges of 10s. each, one by an
unknown donor, and the other by Eynon Rees, in 1786, are distributed in March and September among poor industrious
families. In the parish are several barrows, probably covering the remains of those who fell in the battle noticed above;
and to the east of the church, and near the ruins of an ancient chapel, which has been converted into a barn, are a Roman
encampment, and vestiges of a Roman road that passed through the parish to Fishguard.