Sir J. E. Lloyd Papers

A collection of 325 items ranging in date from 1874 to 1947 and comprising correspondence, notebooks, addresses, reviews and personal memoranda detailing the rich and varied interests of Sir John Edward Lloyd, the doyen of Welsh historians. Notable amongst them is the series of 33 notebooks packed with the results of his scholarly researches into well-nigh every aspect of Welsh history, and including those which he made in writing his monumental work, A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest. The letters in the collection number some hundreds; the subjects touched upon are multifarious, but in the main all have to do with some aspect of history. Among the writers are Sir Edward Anwyl, Charles Ashton, J. H. Davies, O. M. Edwards, T. E. Ellis, E. Vincent Evans, J. Gwenogfryn Evans, Ellis Jones Griffith, John Morris-Jones, H. Elvet Lewis, Charles Morgan (the novelist), Sir Lewis Morris, J. Arthur Price, Sir John Rhys, Doris Stenton, Sir Lleufer Thomas, T. F. Tout, Griffith John Williams and Sir Ifor Williams.

Sir John Edward Lloyd was an historian and the first editor of the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, born on 5 May 1861 in Liverpool. He was the son of Edward Lloyd, J.P. and Mary Lloyd, although his parents were originally from Montgomeryshire. He was educated at Aberystwyth University and from there went to Lincoln College, Oxford in 1881. In 1883 he succeeded in gaining a first class honours in the primary exam in Latin and Greek, and in 1885 he gained another first class in history. He returned to Aberystwyth in 1885 to lecture in Welsh and History. He was there until 1892 when he came to Bangor, just eight years after the opening of the University College of North Wales, as a registrar and an assistant to Principal Reichel. In 1899 he became a history lecturer at the University. He was a member of many committees, and was active in the reorganisation of the University of Wales (1919). It was he also who drew up the constitution of the Board of Celtic Studies, of which he was chairman until 1940. He played a part also in the work of the Welsh Society of Antiquaries, and was president of it twice. He wrote for many academic periodicals on the subject of Welsh history, but it was for his great work published in 1911 that he became famous, A History of Wales to the Edwardian Conquest. Because of it he gained a D.Litt in Oxford in 1918, from the Universities of Wales in 1922 and Manchester in 1941. Among his later published work Owen Glendower (1931), is the most important. In 1930 he became a Fellow of the British Academy, and to them he gave the lecture The Welsh Chronicles, which was published by the Oxford press in 1930. He was for many years one of the most prominent figures at the National Eisteddfod, and one of the pillars of 'Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg'. He was a Congregationalist, and enjoyed expounding the Independent polity in church government. In 1934 he was elected president of the Congregational Union of Wales. He died 20 June 1947.

According to subject.

Open to all users with the exception of ms 320, of which perusal and examination is at the discretion of the archivist.

Presented by Lady Lloyd, Mr Edward Lloyd and Mrs Garmon Jones in 1948.

Catalogue at series level mainly

See index of National Library of Wales Handlist of Manuscripts, vols I, II and III, under Lloyd, Sir John Edward.

Usual copyright conditions apply. Reprographics made at the discretion of the archivist.

ca.1874-1947

None expected

Bangor Manuscripts 13843-13844, 13933-13934, 14360A, 14905, 15290 (43), 16562, 16716-16721, 16873-16876, 16961 (21-22, 31), 19907 (xxi), 20176, 20197, 21084-21089, 25363-25389, 26010-26018, 26646-47, 31110

Stephens, Meic (ed), Cydymaith i Lenyddiaeth Cymru, (Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru Caerdydd, 1997). Richard, Dr. Thomas, 'Obituary', Transactions of the Caernarvonshire Historical Society, volume 8, pp1-4. Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig 1941-1950, Paratowyd dan nawdd Anrhydeddus Gymdeithas y Cymmrodorion (Llundain 1970). L.G. Wickham Legg and E.T. Williams (eds), The Dictionary of National Biography, 1941-1950, (London; New York: Oxford University Press, 1959). Proceedings of the British Academy, Vol XLI, 1953, (London, G. Cumberlege, Oxford University Press [etc.]) Access Points