Diary, etc., of John Davies, Ystrad

A diary and commonplace book of John Davies (David) ('Siôn Dafydd y Crydd'), bookbinder and cobbler, of Llanfihangel Ystrad, co. Cardigan. The diary covers the period from 1 January 1796 to 19 December 1799 (new style) and refers mainly to 'booking ', e.g., the binding of local Church Bibles, the making of a letter case for William Lewes, Llysnewydd, the purchase of pasteboard and glue, etc. Other entries consist of copious observations on the weather and on the health of the writer and of members of his family; records of other activities of the scribe and of his wife, such as the making up of club accounts and attendance at club feasts, the making up of churchwardens' and vestry accounts, the writing of documents (leases, wills, marriage settlements, letters, bidding letters, and club articles), estreating, attendance at religious services, the death and burial of local residents, visits to fairs, gardening, the raising of turf, the making of candles, watch repairing, the spinning of flax and hemp, grinding at the mill, etc.); and references to unusual or interesting contemporary incidents, e.g., the beginning of Bedlwyn bridge, 9 August 1796, 'great noise about the French landing in Pembrokshire', 1 March 1797, 'great alarm about mad dogs ', 17 March 1797, the eclipse of the sun, 24 June 1797, '2000 Irish emigrants in Pembrokshire', 15 June 1798, 'Terrible Rebellion in Ireland', 18 June 1798, '. . . the Buck wheat plowed with a new plow English fashion with foure Horses', 31 August 1798, etc. In the left hand margin of each page are two columns indicating each date in both the new and the old styles. The remainder of the volume contains miscellaneous poetry, including stanzas and 'englynion' by D. Davies, lines 'On Czar Peter of Russia', 1797, stanzas beginning 'God save the Rights of Man', 1795, 'Englynion I Lys Ifor Hael . . .' by Evan Evans ('Bardd ac Offeiriad'), 1779, with an English translation, 'Can, yr hon a genir gan filwyr Ffraingc wrth fyned it frwydr', 1797, stanzas entitled 'God Save the King' (beginning 'Fame let thy Trumpet sound') (extracted 5 January 1763 from The Gentleman's Magazine, December 1745), stanzas extracted in 1772 from William Lithgow's 'Book of . . . Travels', 'cywydd' couplets by Edmund Prys and Hug[h] Arwystl, stanzas entitled 'The Brittish Muse, The Banks of the Wye' (from the Hereford Journal, 18 June 1778), stanzas entitled 'Tweed's Side' (from The Gentleman's Magazine, May 1767), 'Chwanegiad at gân Rhydddid' (in a later hand), 'Can o Sen I Ficcar Coch Cayo' by Dafydd Manuel, 'General Thanksgiving. The following lines were found in St. Peters Church Yard in Colchester on Tuesday the 19 of Decr. 1797 being the Day appointed for a general thanksgiving . . .', 'On the Day of general thanksgiving on the 29th Day of November 1798 were the following lines stuck up on . . . the Church Door of Ystrad Church', 'An Epitaph on a Blacksmith', 'Lines written out of Temper, on a Pannel in one of the Pews of C . . .m Church' (from the Hereford Journal, 26 October 1791), 'Littani' by 'J[ohn] J[ones] Glangors', 1797, etc.; the score of a song entitled 'The Recess', 1794, and of 'A Gavot' by Correlli; a list of floruits of 'Brittish Poets' (from Myrddyn Emrys to Dafydd William o'r Nant); 'Coppi o Lythur Gruffudd ap Ieuan at Saer Pren o Lan Sain Sion Allan o Almanac am y Flwyddyn 1720'; notes on Nonconformist Sects, extracted from W[illiam] Mather: The Young Man's Companion (London, 1737); a pedigree of King George III; the Greek alphabet; recipes for sealing wafers and sealing wax; a table of cities, towns, and villages from Lampeter to London; memoranda of local births and deaths, e.g., the death of the Reverend David Lloyd, Castle Howel, 1779, and of the Reverend Richard Lloyd, Llwynrhydowen, 1797; the allocation of seats and pews newly erected in the body of the church of Ystrad, 1716; etc.

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Title based on contents.

Preferred citation: NLW MS 12350A.

The description is also available in the Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, Volume IV (Aberystwyth, 1971).

Digital version available at http://hdl.handle.net/10107/4640623 (viewed April 2016)

January 2010.

Description compiled by Bethan Ifans for the retrospective conversion project of NLW MSS.

The volume bears the name of Samuel Jenkins.

See also NLW MS 16663A.

For summaries of the contents of this manuscript see Cledlyn Davies: 'Sion Dafydd y Crydd', etc., Welsh Gazette, 27 February, 30 April 1936, and 'A Cobbler Diarist', Cambrian News, 1 May 1936.

Published

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = The National Library of Wales