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The last duel in Wales took place at Dan-
It all started in the Old Salutation Inn, a popular hostelry overlooking the river Teifi and the bridge in Adpar where Thomas Heslop, a West Indian gentleman, then living at Carmarthen, was staying.
He and others had been invited to go on a partridge shoot by John Beynon, a local solicitor of Llwyncadfor Farm near Llandyfriog on Thursday September 8th 1814.
That evening after the shoot John Beynon invited thirty six year old Thomas Heslop, together with others to spend an evening at the Old Salutation, to dine and drink.
A dispute arose on the subject of the day’s shooting. Heslop claimed that he had had a very bad days sport, because he not been allowed to shoot when and where he pleased. He blamed the Cardigan gentlemen (Cardis) present. Beynon tried to diffuse this outburst by making derogatory remarks about the barmaid.
This inflamed Heslop, as he fancied the barmaid, and objected strongly to John Beynon’s coarse comments and turned round and called the solicitor a damned villain and scoundrel and challenged him to a duel.
The Last Duel in Wales
Heslops Grave at Llandyfyriog Church.
The worn tombstone reads,
SACRED
To the Memory of
THOMAS HESLOP
Born 27th June 1780
Died 10th Sept 1814
Alas Poor Heslop
The entry in Llandyfyriog Church Burial Register for 1814
(Courtesy of the Ceredigion Records Office, Aberystwyth)
Map of Adpar 1832
