The village was originally within the ancient parish of
Ruabon and the
township of Morton Above (i.e. Morton, or moor town, above
Offa's Dyke) or Morton Wallichorum (the
Welsh Morton). In 1844 Morton Above, along with part of the neighbouring township of Dynhinlle Ucha, became part of the newly created parish of Rhosllanerchrugog. The Llanerchrugog estate itself was owned by the Jones family from at least the 1400s to the 19th century; in 1649 the landowner John Jones of Llanerchrugog claimed a detailed genealogy going back 2400 years to
Dyfnwal Moelmud, and attempted to use his ancient rights of ownership to argue he should be exempt from taxes. The development of the village can be attributed largely to the
coal seams of north-east Wales that pass near it. The burgesses of
Holt were granted the right to dig for coal at Rhos in their
borough charter of 1563. which it has retained until the present day. The proportion of Welsh-speakers in Rhos did not fall below 50% until the time of the
1981 census. By the early 18th century the Rhosllanerchrugog mines were the property of the future
Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 3rd Baronet, of Wynnstay, a member of the area's major landowning family and a prominent
Jacobite. At the accession of
George I in August 1714, Williams-Wynn incited the miners of Rhos to march to Wrexham, singing Jacobite songs, to sack two
Dissenting meeting houses, to smash the windows of
Whig tradesmen and to prevent the bells of Wrexham church ringing to celebrate the accession. The available notes of Mr Kenrick, minister of the New Meeting, dispute many of these assertions. In Wrexham, it was on July 15, 1715 (before George I's accession), that Tory resentment overflowed into riots that were mainly directed at the Dissenters. The New Meeting House was destroyed and the Old Meeting House was badly damaged. The colliers came into town on July 20, 1715 to help and protect the rioters. Upon request from the Dissenters, Watkin Williams-Wynn interceded and persuaded the men to desist. Sporadic rioting continued, at least until October 20, 1715, which was the King's Coronation Day. The Jacobite politics of the district's landlord and his tenants is popularly thought to be the source of the nickname "Jackos" or "Jacos" still applied to inhabitants of Rhos. A symbol of Rhos' coal-mining and
labour movement heritage is seen in the "Stiwt", the
miners' institute in Broad Street. This was erected and paid for by the miners, during the
general strike of 1926, as, a social and cultural centre for the community. The
Welsh Religious Revival of 1904 also had a major impact on Rhos. The
cynghanedd "
Beibl a Rhaw i Bobl y Rhos" ("a bible and a spade for the people of Rhos") Rhos hosted the
National Eisteddfod in 1945 and 1961, and the
Celtic League was founded there in 1961 during the Eisteddfod. The many informal fringe performances around this event were memorialised in the poem "The Cross Foxes" by
Harri Webb, remembering the night when in Rhos "
we drank the pub dry". With a population of over 10,000, the modern
community of Rhosllanerchrugog is one of the largest in Wales. The 2011 census showed that the population of the built-up area of Rhosllanerchrugog including adjoining
Pen-y-cae is 13,501. the
2001 Census showed that 31.5% of the community area was Welsh speaking, declining to 24% at the 2011 census.
Welsh medium education is, however, popular and significantly increasing in the area. ==Architecture==