Aberaman, to the south of Aberdare, was an agricultural area until the early nineteenth century. Prior to the industrial revolution, Aberaman was the home of the Mathew family, local gentry who owned land throughout Glamorgan and who came to prominence in the seventeenth century when three members of the family served as High Sheriff of Glamorgan. The family seat was at Aberaman Isha, later known as Aberaman House (and which still exists in 2014 but is much altered). The last of the Mathew family, Edward Mathew, died in 1788 and the estate was broken up after two centuries and divided between his three daughters and their husbands.