Manuscript memoir, 1774-1775, of William Owen, recalling his early years in the Royal Navy, from 1750 to 1761, in particular his time in India from 1754. The volume recounts life and events on board ship, together with incidents, escapades and misadventures ashore.
Owen went to sea as a midshipman and passed his Lieutenant's exam on 1 February 1758 (pp. 328-329). He served aboard several ships, most notably HMS Tyger, 1754-1759 (pp. 137-403), and HMS Sunderland, 1759-1761 (pp. 411-547). He participated in several naval and land actions in the Carnatic, Bengal and elsewhere, including the capture of Geriah (Vijaydurg), February 1756 (pp. 194-204), the expedition to retake Calcutta, December 1756-February 1757 (pp. 242-68), the battle of Chandernagore, 23 March 1757 (pp. 282-9), the naval battles off Cuddalore, 30 April 1758 (pp. 343-7), Negapatam, 3 August 1758 (pp. 368-73) and Pondicherry, 11 September 1759 (pp. 444-9), and the subsequent siege and blockade of Pondicherry, August 1760-January 1761 (pp. 530-53). Other incidents of note include a fraught voyage from Jamaica to England, October 1753-January 1754 (pp. 120-32), an ill-fated shooting expedition in Trincomalee, Ceylon, July 1759 (pp. 427-36), the loss of his right arm during a raid at Pondicherry, 6 October 1760 (pp. 531-6), and the sinking of HMS Sunderland in a cyclone shortly before Owen was due to rejoin her, 1 January 1761 (pp. 544-7). The volume, which contains occasional corrections, deletions and interpolations, is based mainly on Owen's journals, log books and other papers (see NLW, Glansevern Estate Records). In addition, certain passages, especially accounts of wider events, are either copied verbatim or adapted, without acknowledgement, from published works including Edward Ives, A Voyage from England to India… (London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1773, ESTC T12210) (pp. 154-5, 163, 171, 178-9, 195, 197-8, 200-204, 210-13, 218, 223-5, 234, 242-3, 251-2, 259-60, 262-3, 264-6, 269-76, 280-81, 284-5, 294-305, 313, 316-7), and unidentified editions of Richard Owen Cambridge, An Account of the War in India, Between the English and French… (London: T. Jefferys, 1761, ESTC T145098) (pp. 339-41, 345, 353-60, 366, 368-70, 372, 386-9, 403-9, 454-90, 496-7, 513-20, 523, 558-62), John Entick, The General History of the Late War…, 5 vols (London: Edward Dilly and John Millan, 1763, T138198) (pp. 506-12, 520, 523-6, 540-43, 550-51, 553, 562-7), An Impartial History of the Late Glorious War (Manchester: printed by R. Whitworth, 1764, T110585) (pp. 459-50) and the third volume of An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere..., ed. by John Hawkesworth, 3 vols (London: printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell in the Strand, 1773, T74465) (pp. 578-82). Owen's second volume of memoirs is partly published in Narrative of American Voyages and Travels of Captain William Owen, R.N., and Settlement of the Island of Campobello in the Bay of Fundy 1766-1771, ed. by Victor Hugo Paltsits (New York, New York Public Library, 1942), a copy of which is included with the present manuscript (NLW MS 24132E(a)).

Ten typescript articles and transcripts, 1973-1984, nearly all written or compiled by Dr Clare Taylor, Aberystwyth.
They comprise: (i) 'America 1851-1852', dated April 1973, a translation by Mari Ellis of the diary of Iorthryn Gwynedd (NLW MS 9521A), with an introduction by Clare Taylor; (ii) 'The Phillipps Manuscript: A Chapter in Early Welsh Migration to the West Indies and to the United States', 1973, a transcript of NLW MS 92B with an introduction by Clare Taylor (the introduction only was published, with the same title, in National Library of Wales Journal, 19.3 (Summer 1976), 243-248); (iii) 'A Description of Trinidad 1881-1882', 1973, a transcript of [?part of] NLW MS 17267D; (iv-vii) 'A Victorian Guide to Wales', 1973 and undated, four volumes containing transcripts from nineteenth-century trade directories of descriptions of individual parishes in Anglesey, Caernarvonshire, Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire; (viii) an article, 1979, entitled 'The Journal of an Absentee Proprietor: Nathaniel Phillips of Slebech', concerning NLW, Slebech Estate Records 4292-4302; (ix) 'Isaac Williams of Cardiganshire – the Christian poet – an introduction to his nature poetry', 1984, an article subsequently published in Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1986), 115-126; and (x) 'NLW MS 15505 Picton Papers and Letters', [n.d.], consisting of transcripts (and in some cases translations from the Welsh) of letters of Welsh-American interest in NLW MS 15505E, as well as NLW MS 14111D and elsewhere. Items i-iv and viii-ix are photocopied or cyclostyled, while v-vii and x are carbon copies.