Owners & People of Island House

Island House Restoration Ltd traced the owners and people who lived in Island House from 1778 to the present day, from factual sources, working without access to local archive services during lockdown. Their record begins in 1778.

William Skyrme (1778–1823) was born and died at Island House and was Portreeve of Laugharne (1801, 1802, 1817). The Skyrmes were marine-supply merchants; their 65-ton sloop, the William Skyrme, appears in Lloyd's Register, the living link from the medieval quay to a working Georgian business.

The plot passed through the town's leading families. The Prydderchs held burgages here by 1592, probably including this one, and their line runs back to Elizabeth White, heiress of Jasper White of Laugharne. After them came the Thomases and the Hughes, down to Jane Abra Hughes, sole heiress, who carried Island House to the Skyrmes. The boundary wall still bears a plaque: "rebuilt by Maryabra Hughes Skyrme AD 1837."

Of everyone who has lived at Island House, Mary Abra Hughes Skyrme is the one who wrote her own name into its fabric. The plaque she set in the boundary wall in 1837 is still there, and it is her signature on the building.

In the 20th century Caleb Rees, Deputy Chief Inspector of Schools for Wales, lived at Island House from 1943 to 1964, then in a house he built on part of the former garden until his death in 1970; his wife Dr Laura Powell was Medical Officer to the Welsh Board of Health.

Note: the long-repeated claim that Bridget "Madam" Bevan lived at Island House is unsourced and is not carried as fact.