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Beaumaris in 1610
Beaumaris from the sea in the 1840s
Beaumaris was originally a Viking settlement known as Porth y Wygyr ("Port of the Vikings"), but the town itself began its development in 1295 when Edward I of England, having conquered Wales, commissioned the building of Beaumaris Castle as part of a chain of fortifications around the North Wales coast (others include Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech).
The castle was built on a marsh, and that is where it found its name; the Norman-French builders called it beaux marais, which translates as "fair marsh".
The castle in 1852
The ancient village of Llanfaes, one mile (1.5 kilometres) to the north of Beaumaris, had been occupied by Anglo-Saxons in 818[citation needed] but had been regained by Merfyn Frych, King of Gwynedd, and remained a vital strategic settlement. To counter further Welsh uprisings and to ensure control of the Menai Strait, Edward I chose the flat coastal plain as the place to build Beaumaris Castle. The castle was designed by the Savoyard mason Master James of Saint George and is considered the most perfect example of a concentric castle. The 'troublesome' residents of Llanfaes were removed en bloc to Rhosyr in the west of Anglesey, a new settlement King Edward entitled "Newborough".
Beaumaris was awarded a royal charter by Edward I in 1296, which was drawn up on similar terms to the charters of his other castle towns in North Wales and intended to invest only the English and Norman-French residents with civic rights. Native Welsh residents of Beaumaris were largely disqualified from holding any civic office, carrying any weapon, and holding assemblies; and were not allowed to buy houses or land within the borough. The charter also specifically prohibited Jews (who had been largely expelled from most English towns) from living in Beaumaris.
From 1562 until the Reform Act 1832, the Beaumaris constituency was a rotten borough with the member of parliament elected by the corporation of the town, which was in the control of the Bulkeley family.
Beaumaris was the port of registration for all vessels in North West Wales, covering every harbour on Anglesey and all the ports from Conwy to Pwllheli. Shipbuilding was a major industry in Beaumaris. This was centred on Gallows Point – a nearby spit of land extending into the Menai Strait about one mile (1.5 kilometres) west of the town. Gallows Point had originally been called "Osmund's Eyre" but was renamed when the town gallows was erected there – along with a "Dead House" for the corpses of criminals dispatched in public executions. Later, hangings were carried out at the town jail and the bodies buried in a lime-pit within the curtilage of the jail. One of the last prisoners to hang at Beaumaris issued a curse before he died – decreeing that if he was innocent the four faces of the church clock would never show the same time.
Beaumaris was a haven of refuge in a storm to the passengers of the sailing ship, Everton, on a Thursday morning in November,1762 when it ran aground on a nearby sand bank. The ship's Captain, knowing nothing could be done before high tide six hours hence, ordered the yawl to be lowered carrying himself and all the passengers to shore for fresh provisions in the town. One of those passengers was Devereux Jarratt from Virginia who was voyaging to London to receive holy orders from the Bishop of London in the Church of England. He writes in his autobiography, "As I had eaten nothing for several days, but salt beef, ranced butter, black biscuit, &tc. while on board, the meat, butter, and every thing I ate, at Beaumaris, exceeded any thing I ever had tasted in all my life. Having refreshed ourselves, in the most delicious and agreeable manner, we took a view of the town, and the remains of an old castle standing just without the town, which had been erected as a place of security and defence, by one of the first kings of England. Every thing appeared so delightful, and the inhabitants looked so fresh and ruddy, that I thought no people in the world could live better than the Welsh. The high mountain of Penmanmaur, lying over against the town, with the top in the clouds, and all the visible parts covered with snow, exhibited the most grand and majestic appearance, I had ever seen."
According to historian Hywel Teifi Edwards, when the "Provincial Eisteddfod" was held at Beaumaris in 1832, a young Princess Victoria and her mother were in attendance.
Beaumaris has never had a railway station built to the town, although the nearby village of Pentraeth had a station on the former Red Wharf Bay branch line which ran off the Anglesey Central Railway. It was roughly six miles (ten kilometres) west of the town by road. This station closed in 1930.
