Miscellaneous letters

Letters, 1855-1904, of miscellaneous provenance, including letters, 1871-1894, to and from Welsh emigrants to Australia and the United States of America (ff. 11-24, 49-50, 69-70, 108-123); a letter, 1855, from the artist Penry Williams relating to a proposed visit by Lady Charlotte Guest to the Vatican; and a letter, 1857, from the Rev. Calvert Richard Jones, photographic pioneer, to his friend Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot of Margam, written from Nice. Other correspondents include Owen M. Edwards (1) 1891, Thomas E. Ellis (1) 1892, David Lloyd George (5) 1879-1892, William E. Gladstone (3) 1857-1875, Sir Lewis Morris (2) 1890-1895, Daniel Owen (1) 1885 and John Thomas (Pencerdd Gwalia) (4) 1891-1904.

Owen Morgan Edwards was a prominent man of letters, author, editor, tutor in history at Oxford University, 1889-1907, and the first Chief Inspector of Schools under the new Welsh Education Department.
O. M. Edwards was born at Coed-y-pry, Llanuwchllyn, Merioneth, on 26 December 1858, the eldest son of Owen and Elizabeth Edwards. With the original intention of entering the nonconformist ministry, he attended Bala College, and subsequently spent the period 1880-1883 at the young University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he studied English, history and philosophy. He spent the academic year 1883-1884 at Glasgow studying philosophy, and the years 1884-1887 at Balliol College, Oxford, where he enjoyed a notably distinguished career, winning three major university prizes, and graduating with first class honours in history in 1887. During this formative period of his life he came heavily under the influence of the aestheticism of Ruskin and William Morris, and of the Dafydd ap Gwilym Society which much enhanced his indigenous love of his native Wales. It was primarily within this Society that Edwards formed an enduring bond of friendship with prominent Welshmen such as Edward Anwyl, J. Puleston Jones, John Morris-Jones and D. Lleufer Thomas
O. M. Edwards spent the year 1888-1889 on the continent, and in the latter year was appointed Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and tutor in history there and at other colleges. He remained in this position until 1907 and was notable for his dedication to his lecture preparation and tutorial work. His academic publications were few until 1901 when his popular volume entitled Wales - a book on the history of Wales - was published. From 1890 onwards he also became engaged in editing a number of Welsh periodicals that compelled him to spend an inordinate amount of his time in drafting numerous articles and proof correcting. These periodicals included Cymru Fydd (begun in 1890), Cymru (1891), Cymru'r Plant (1892), Wales (1894), Y Llenor (1895) and Heddyw (1897). He also published a number of slim volumes such as Cartrefi Cymru (1896), and set in train a scheme to re-publish considerable numbers of the Welsh classics, primarily in the series Cyfres y Fil. This service was critical in ensuring the survival of a distinctive Welsh culture by providing the Welsh people with a knowledge of their past history and literature, and nurturing a school of young Welsh writers. His contribution in this sphere may be compared with that of Thomas Gee. In 1906 he also established 'Urdd y Delyn', a children's society which was a precursor of 'Urdd Gobaith Cymru' set up by his son Ifan ab Owen Edwards in 1922.
In 1907 Edwards was appointed the first Chief Inspector of Schools under the aegis of the recently established Welsh Education Department. Here, he reformed the Welsh education system by encouraging the teaching of Welsh and improving the atmosphere of Welsh schools. But he did come into conflict with the Central Welsh Board set up in 1896 over his conviction that the new intermediate schools established in the 1890s were severe anglicising influences in Wales.
Following the premature death of Thomas Edward Ellis MP in April 1899, Edwards served for one session as the Liberal MP for his native Merionethshire, but he disliked the reality of political life and decided not to stand for re-election in the general election of 1900. His intense nationalism was primarily cultural rather than political. He was knighted in January 1916 and received the degree of D.Litt honoris causa from the University of Wales in 1918. He died, still in post, at his home Neuadd Wen (an adaptation of Whitehall, the headquarters of the Board of Education in London) Llanuwchllyn, in 1920. His wife, Ellen Davies of Prys Mawr, Llanuwchllyn, had predeceased him the previous year. There were three children of the marriage, but the elder son died in infancy.

Thomas Edward (Tom) Ellis (1859-1899), politician, was Liberal MP for Merioneth, 1886-1899, and chief Liberal whip, 1894-1895. He was born at Cynlas, Cefnddwysarn, Llanfor, Merionethshire, and educated in Llandderfel and Bala, before going to University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1875-1879. He joined New College, Oxford, in 1880, graduating in 1884 with a BA in Modern History, adding an MA in 1897. He became the private secretary of John Brunner, MP for Northwich, Cheshire, and in August 1886 he was elected as Liberal MP for Merioneth. By 1892, he was second whip in Gladstone's Liberal Government, and was chief Liberal whip, 1894-1895, under Lord Rosebery. He vigorously promoted Welsh interests in Parliament, advocating the disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales, the creation of a Welsh assembly and national library, and pushing through the establishment of a Royal Commission on land in Wales and Monmouthshire. At one time he was a prominent member of the Cymru Fydd movement. He had a great influence on educational administration in Wales. He contributed to the passing of the Welsh Intermediate and Technical Education Act 1889, and was a member the University of Wales Court and the Central Welsh Board. He was the founder of the University of Wales' Old Students' Association. He married Annie Jane Davies (1873-1942) of Cwrt-mawr, Llangeitho, Cardiganshire, in 1898. However, his health was fragile, and he died on 5 April 1899, while in Cannes, France, and was buried at Cefnddwysarn. His only son, T. I. Ellis, was born eight months later. A volume entitled Speeches and Addresses was published by Hughes and Son, Wrexham, in 1912. His widow subsequently married the Rev. Peter Hughes Griffiths (1871-1937).

Sir Lewis Morris (1833-1907), poet and educationist, was born in Carmarthen. He trained at the Bar but his most important work was that done for higher education in Wales.

John Thomas (Pencerdd Gwalia, 1826-1913), harpist, was born on St David's Day 1826 in Bridgend, Glamorgan. At the age of twelve, he won the prize of a new triple-strung harp at the 1838 Abergavenny National Eisteddfod. From 1840 to 1846, sponsored by Ada, Lady Lovelace, Thomas studied at the Royal College of Music. During the 1850s he gave concerts throughout Europe. From 1850 to 1910 he published over two hundred works, including editions of harp works by Handel, Spohr and Mozart, and four volumes of his own Welsh Melodies for harp and voice (1857, 1862, 1870, 1874). From 1862 Thomas promoted some forty annual concerts of Welsh music, which included large choral sounds and multiple harps. At the National Eisteddfod of Aberdare in 1861 he was invested with the title 'Pencerdd Gwalia'. In 1871 Thomas succeeded to the post of professor at the Royal Academy of Music and the following year was appointed harpist-in-ordinary (and, in 1885, musician-in-ordinary) to the queen; following Victoria's death in 1901 he continued as harpist to Edward VII. Thomas married Alice Ann Keate (1855-1880) in 1878; he married his second wife, Joan Frances Denny (1849-1926) in 1885; both were his former pupils. He gave his last concert on 17 June 1905 and died 19 March 1913.

David Lloyd George, Liberal statesman and Prime Minister from 1916 until 1922, was born in Manchester in January 1863. His father died the following year and his mother took herself and her children to live with her brother Richard Lloyd (1834-1917) at Llanystumdwy, where David attended the National School. He qualified in law in 1884 and began to practice as a solicitor at Cricieth; he became known in his profession as a fierce advocate and an eloquent speaker. Together with his younger brother William George (1865-1967) he set up the family legal practice Lloyd George and George. In 1890 Lloyd George was elected Liberal MP for the Caernarvonshire Boroughs. His interests at this time were mainly those of Wales, including the Disestablishment of the Welsh Church and land reform; he was also prominent in the nationalistic movement Cymru Fydd which was founded in 1886. He also opposed the conduct of the South African war (1899-1902) and the 1902 Education Act. When the Liberals came to power in 1905 Lloyd George became President of the Board of Trade under Campbell-Bannerman and he soon proved himself an exceptional administrator and mediator. In 1908 he succeeded H. H. Asquith as Chancellor of the Exchequer, piloting the Old Age Pension Bill through the House of Commons, and, in 1909, he introduced his controversial first 'People's Budget', which emphasised social reform by raising revenue in novel ways, and which was rejected by the House of Lords. In 1911, he was successfully to introduce the National Insurance Bill. Upon the formation of a wartime coalition government in 1915, Lloyd George became Minister of Munitions, and in 1916 he succeeded first Lord Kitchener, as Secretary for War. On Asquith's enforced resignation in December 1916, Lloyd George became Prime Minister, steering Britain through the First World War and appearing prominently in the subsequent Paris Peace Conference of 1919. In 1921, he carried through the Anglo-Irish Treaty which created an autonomous Ireland. When, in November 1922, the Conservative members of the government took their decision to resign, thus making it impossible to continue the Coalition, Lloyd George also resigned his post as Prime Minister. Though he never held office again, he did however remain politically active for a number of years, even travelling to Germany to meet Adolf Hitler in 1936. He also published his War Memoirs in six volumes in the late 1930s. In 1945, the last year of his life, Lloyd George was created 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor and Viscount Gwynedd. He died at Ty Newydd, Llanystumdwy on 26 March 1945 and was buried near the river Dwyfor. He remained the Liberal MP for the Caernarfon Boroughs at the time of his death. Lloyd George was twice married: his first marriage in 1888 to Margaret Owen, the daughter of Richard Owen of Mynydd Ednyfed Fawr, Criccieth, a prosperous Eifionydd farmer. Despite her husband's political activities in London, Margaret maintained strong links with Criccieth, and ensured that the first language of the home was Welsh. The marriage produced five children - Richard (1889-1968), Mair Eluned, who died in 1907 aged seventeen, Olwen, later Lady Olwen Carey-Evans (1892-1990), Gwilym (1894-1967), and Megan (1902-1966). His second marriage, in October 1943, was to his long-standing secretary and mistress, Frances Stevenson.<br>Both Gwilym and Megan followed their father into politics, and Gwilym held a number of ministerial posts at Westminster between 1942 and 1957. Megan was MP for Anglesey as a Liberal, 1929-1951, but she joined the Lloyd George family group of independent Liberal MPs at the constitutional crisis of August 1931. She served as the committed president of the tenacious Parliament for Wales campaign throughout its duration from 1950 until 1956. Her politics moved to the left in the 1950s, she joined the Labour Party in April 1955, and she was Labour MP for Carmarthen from 1957 until her death in 1966. Like her mother, Megan served as a Justice of the Peace in Criccieth and was also a member of the town council for many years. The family's affinity with Criccieth, and their interest (rooted in their Nonconformist upbringing) in religion and education, is reflected in the papers they collected relating to schools and chapels in the area.

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Owen Morgan Edwards was a prominent man of letters, author, editor, tutor in history at Oxford University, 1889-1907, and the first Chief Inspector of Schools under the new Welsh Education Department.
O. M. Edwards was born at Coed-y-pry, Llanuwchllyn, Merioneth, on 26 December 1858, the eldest son of Owen and Elizabeth Edwards. With the original intention of entering the nonconformist ministry, he attended Bala College, and subsequently spent the period 1880-1883 at the young University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he studied English, history and philosophy. He spent the academic year 1883-1884 at Glasgow studying philosophy, and the years 1884-1887 at Balliol College, Oxford, where he enjoyed a notably distinguished career, winning three major university prizes, and graduating with first class honours in history in 1887. During this formative period of his life he came heavily under the influence of the aestheticism of Ruskin and William Morris, and of the Dafydd ap Gwilym Society which much enhanced his indigenous love of his native Wales. It was primarily within this Society that Edwards formed an enduring bond of friendship with prominent Welshmen such as Edward Anwyl, J. Puleston Jones, John Morris-Jones and D. Lleufer Thomas
O. M. Edwards spent the year 1888-1889 on the continent, and in the latter year was appointed Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and tutor in history there and at other colleges. He remained in this position until 1907 and was notable for his dedication to his lecture preparation and tutorial work. His academic publications were few until 1901 when his popular volume entitled Wales - a book on the history of Wales - was published. From 1890 onwards he also became engaged in editing a number of Welsh periodicals that compelled him to spend an inordinate amount of his time in drafting numerous articles and proof correcting. These periodicals included Cymru Fydd (begun in 1890), Cymru (1891), Cymru'r Plant (1892), Wales (1894), Y Llenor (1895) and Heddyw (1897). He also published a number of slim volumes such as Cartrefi Cymru (1896), and set in train a scheme to re-publish considerable numbers of the Welsh classics, primarily in the series Cyfres y Fil. This service was critical in ensuring the survival of a distinctive Welsh culture by providing the Welsh people with a knowledge of their past history and literature, and nurturing a school of young Welsh writers. His contribution in this sphere may be compared with that of Thomas Gee. In 1906 he also established 'Urdd y Delyn', a children's society which was a precursor of 'Urdd Gobaith Cymru' set up by his son Ifan ab Owen Edwards in 1922.
In 1907 Edwards was appointed the first Chief Inspector of Schools under the aegis of the recently established Welsh Education Department. Here, he reformed the Welsh education system by encouraging the teaching of Welsh and improving the atmosphere of Welsh schools. But he did come into conflict with the Central Welsh Board set up in 1896 over his conviction that the new intermediate schools established in the 1890s were severe anglicising influences in Wales.
Following the premature death of Thomas Edward Ellis MP in April 1899, Edwards served for one session as the Liberal MP for his native Merionethshire, but he disliked the reality of political life and decided not to stand for re-election in the general election of 1900. His intense nationalism was primarily cultural rather than political. He was knighted in January 1916 and received the degree of D.Litt honoris causa from the University of Wales in 1918. He died, still in post, at his home Neuadd Wen (an adaptation of Whitehall, the headquarters of the Board of Education in London) Llanuwchllyn, in 1920. His wife, Ellen Davies of Prys Mawr, Llanuwchllyn, had predeceased him the previous year. There were three children of the marriage, but the elder son died in infancy.

Thomas Edward (Tom) Ellis (1859-1899), politician, was Liberal MP for Merioneth, 1886-1899, and chief Liberal whip, 1894-1895. He was born at Cynlas, Cefnddwysarn, Llanfor, Merionethshire, and educated in Llandderfel and Bala, before going to University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1875-1879. He joined New College, Oxford, in 1880, graduating in 1884 with a BA in Modern History, adding an MA in 1897. He became the private secretary of John Brunner, MP for Northwich, Cheshire, and in August 1886 he was elected as Liberal MP for Merioneth. By 1892, he was second whip in Gladstone's Liberal Government, and was chief Liberal whip, 1894-1895, under Lord Rosebery. He vigorously promoted Welsh interests in Parliament, advocating the disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales, the creation of a Welsh assembly and national library, and pushing through the establishment of a Royal Commission on land in Wales and Monmouthshire. At one time he was a prominent member of the Cymru Fydd movement. He had a great influence on educational administration in Wales. He contributed to the passing of the Welsh Intermediate and Technical Education Act 1889, and was a member the University of Wales Court and the Central Welsh Board. He was the founder of the University of Wales' Old Students' Association. He married Annie Jane Davies (1873-1942) of Cwrt-mawr, Llangeitho, Cardiganshire, in 1898. However, his health was fragile, and he died on 5 April 1899, while in Cannes, France, and was buried at Cefnddwysarn. His only son, T. I. Ellis, was born eight months later. A volume entitled Speeches and Addresses was published by Hughes and Son, Wrexham, in 1912. His widow subsequently married the Rev. Peter Hughes Griffiths (1871-1937).

Sir Lewis Morris (1833-1907), poet and educationist, was born in Carmarthen. He trained at the Bar but his most important work was that done for higher education in Wales.

John Thomas (Pencerdd Gwalia, 1826-1913), harpist, was born on St David's Day 1826 in Bridgend, Glamorgan. At the age of twelve, he won the prize of a new triple-strung harp at the 1838 Abergavenny National Eisteddfod. From 1840 to 1846, sponsored by Ada, Lady Lovelace, Thomas studied at the Royal College of Music. During the 1850s he gave concerts throughout Europe. From 1850 to 1910 he published over two hundred works, including editions of harp works by Handel, Spohr and Mozart, and four volumes of his own Welsh Melodies for harp and voice (1857, 1862, 1870, 1874). From 1862 Thomas promoted some forty annual concerts of Welsh music, which included large choral sounds and multiple harps. At the National Eisteddfod of Aberdare in 1861 he was invested with the title 'Pencerdd Gwalia'. In 1871 Thomas succeeded to the post of professor at the Royal Academy of Music and the following year was appointed harpist-in-ordinary (and, in 1885, musician-in-ordinary) to the queen; following Victoria's death in 1901 he continued as harpist to Edward VII. Thomas married Alice Ann Keate (1855-1880) in 1878; he married his second wife, Joan Frances Denny (1849-1926) in 1885; both were his former pupils. He gave his last concert on 17 June 1905 and died 19 March 1913.

David Lloyd George, Liberal statesman and Prime Minister from 1916 until 1922, was born in Manchester in January 1863. His father died the following year and his mother took herself and her children to live with her brother Richard Lloyd (1834-1917) at Llanystumdwy, where David attended the National School. He qualified in law in 1884 and began to practice as a solicitor at Cricieth; he became known in his profession as a fierce advocate and an eloquent speaker. Together with his younger brother William George (1865-1967) he set up the family legal practice Lloyd George and George. In 1890 Lloyd George was elected Liberal MP for the Caernarvonshire Boroughs. His interests at this time were mainly those of Wales, including the Disestablishment of the Welsh Church and land reform; he was also prominent in the nationalistic movement Cymru Fydd which was founded in 1886. He also opposed the conduct of the South African war (1899-1902) and the 1902 Education Act. When the Liberals came to power in 1905 Lloyd George became President of the Board of Trade under Campbell-Bannerman and he soon proved himself an exceptional administrator and mediator. In 1908 he succeeded H. H. Asquith as Chancellor of the Exchequer, piloting the Old Age Pension Bill through the House of Commons, and, in 1909, he introduced his controversial first 'People's Budget', which emphasised social reform by raising revenue in novel ways, and which was rejected by the House of Lords. In 1911, he was successfully to introduce the National Insurance Bill. Upon the formation of a wartime coalition government in 1915, Lloyd George became Minister of Munitions, and in 1916 he succeeded first Lord Kitchener, as Secretary for War. On Asquith's enforced resignation in December 1916, Lloyd George became Prime Minister, steering Britain through the First World War and appearing prominently in the subsequent Paris Peace Conference of 1919. In 1921, he carried through the Anglo-Irish Treaty which created an autonomous Ireland. When, in November 1922, the Conservative members of the government took their decision to resign, thus making it impossible to continue the Coalition, Lloyd George also resigned his post as Prime Minister. Though he never held office again, he did however remain politically active for a number of years, even travelling to Germany to meet Adolf Hitler in 1936. He also published his War Memoirs in six volumes in the late 1930s. In 1945, the last year of his life, Lloyd George was created 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor and Viscount Gwynedd. He died at Ty Newydd, Llanystumdwy on 26 March 1945 and was buried near the river Dwyfor. He remained the Liberal MP for the Caernarfon Boroughs at the time of his death. Lloyd George was twice married: his first marriage in 1888 to Margaret Owen, the daughter of Richard Owen of Mynydd Ednyfed Fawr, Criccieth, a prosperous Eifionydd farmer. Despite her husband's political activities in London, Margaret maintained strong links with Criccieth, and ensured that the first language of the home was Welsh. The marriage produced five children - Richard (1889-1968), Mair Eluned, who died in 1907 aged seventeen, Olwen, later Lady Olwen Carey-Evans (1892-1990), Gwilym (1894-1967), and Megan (1902-1966). His second marriage, in October 1943, was to his long-standing secretary and mistress, Frances Stevenson.<br>Both Gwilym and Megan followed their father into politics, and Gwilym held a number of ministerial posts at Westminster between 1942 and 1957. Megan was MP for Anglesey as a Liberal, 1929-1951, but she joined the Lloyd George family group of independent Liberal MPs at the constitutional crisis of August 1931. She served as the committed president of the tenacious Parliament for Wales campaign throughout its duration from 1950 until 1956. Her politics moved to the left in the 1950s, she joined the Labour Party in April 1955, and she was Labour MP for Carmarthen from 1957 until her death in 1966. Like her mother, Megan served as a Justice of the Peace in Criccieth and was also a member of the town council for many years. The family's affinity with Criccieth, and their interest (rooted in their Nonconformist upbringing) in religion and education, is reflected in the papers they collected relating to schools and chapels in the area.

Title based on contents.

Preferred citation: NLW MS 21817E.

The contents are indexed in greater detail in Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, vol. 8 (Aberystwyth, 1999).

Usual copyright laws apply.

Published