Kemeys Commander

Kemeys Commander () is a village in Monmouthshire, in South East Wales. Location Kemeys Commander, north-west of Usk, comprises a few farms and cottages slightly off the main road leading to Abergavenny within a graceful bend of the River Usk. The village has the parish church of All Saints. Origin of the name Its unusual name is derived from the fact that the patronage of the church was at one time held by the Knights Templar and was a commandery or preceptory, as their houses were termed. In the 16th century their successors, the Knights Hospitaller, drew £2 13s. 4d. per annum from demesne lands in this parish. There may have been a hermitage here in early days. It is, however, doubtful whether the Kemeys family ever held it, and they probably took their name from another Kemeys, Kemeys Inferior, nine miles (14 km) further down the River Usk. Both of these names are from the Welsh word cemais meaning 'bend in a river', and this is an apt description of the site of this village, which stands at the centre of a long bend of consistent radius. Despite the fact that the family did not actually take their surname from here, it was "farmed" by Edward Kemeys, perhaps as chaplain of the chantry of St. Nicholas in the parish church of Usk; in 1603 it belonged to an Edward Morgan. In 1799 Archdeacon William Coxe came here during his Historical Tour in Monmouthshire (published 1801) and wrote "We here mounted our horses and rode through thickets across the fields to Kemeys Commander, a small village".