David Williams, National Library of Wales Journal, Summer 1942, Vol II/3 & 4

The substance of a lecture delivered in the Course in the History of the United States of America for Teachers in Wales, organised by the Board of Education, and held at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, September 8-12, 1941.

Extracted onto the pages of GENUKI with the kind permission of the National Library of Wales

This is a complete extract of this article by Gareth Hicks [30 June  2002].

 

---

The proud claim was made in the United States Senate by Senator John Sharp Williams of Mississippi (and it was duly entered in the Congressional Record) that no nation in proportion to its size had contributed more to the development of the United States than had the Welsh. Whether this claim can be justified or not, it would, perhaps, be invidious to argue; in any case it would be impossible to decide. For the greatest episode in the development of the United States is the epic struggle in subjugating the wilderness of the whole continent, and in this struggle there took part not only the famous men, whom it is fitting that we should praise (as Ecclesiasticus tells us to do) but also 'those who have left no memorial, who are perished as though they had never been, and their children after them'. Yet these nameless ones brought to their task the virtues of courage and of industry, and they handed on to their descendants a tradition of sound living, and in a final reckoning no contribution to the growth of a nation is greater than that. But how one is to measure it is another matter, not to speak of deciding between the relative contributions of the various national groups. Nevertheless one cannot but be surprised at the part played in the outstanding events of American history by men and women of Welsh descent, and at a time like the present, when it is important that we should deepen our knowledge of American life, a study of the contribution of Welsh-Americans may well help us to do so, by providing a link between our own history and that of the United States.

Much has been written on the subject, and most of it (I regret to say) is uncritical to a degree. It is therefore, perhaps, as important to indicate what has not been the contribution of Wales as it is to describe that contribution, and so I am tempted to start with the legend of the Welsh discovery of America three hundred years before Columbus. For the legend is, itself, not without significance, and it was destined to lead to a remarkable sequel.

Briefly, the legend states that, about 1170, Madoc, the son of Owain Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales, sailed westwards and discovered America; he returned home, gathered together a number of ships and men, and sailed westwards again, presumably settling down in the new country. Unfortunately, neither Brut y Tywysogion nor the Annales Cambriae mentions either Madoc or his exploits,, and the two obscure references to him in the work of contemporary bards seem to indicate that he had been killed some time before the death of his father, which took place in 1169. That would seem to dispose effectively of his discovery of America in 1170. How the legend had its origin is, indeed, a mystery which cannot detain us. It is, however, to be found, more or less complete, in the MS History of Cambria of the Welsh Tudor geographer Humphrey Llwyd. This was published after Llwyd's death by Dr David Powell of Ruabon, in 1584, and Dr Powell added to the legend the interesting detail that it was in Mexico that Madoc had settled, his proof for this statement being the number of Welsh words to be found in the Aztec language. He gave several examples of such words, none very happy, and one was particularly unfortunate. This was the name penguin, a word which proved nothing, except that the good vicar of Ruabon had never seen the black-headed bird. But once launched, the legend found its way into most of the travel literature of the time, into the books of Hakluyt, Raleigh, Purchas, Archbishop Abbot, and others, and the reason for this is of some importance; it was put forward deliberately in order to counteract, on the grounds of prior discovery, Spain's exclusive claim to the New World.

In the seventeenth century, a surprising addition was made to the legend. The numerous Welsh emigrants to America at the end of the century were interested in it, and for their benefit the Reverend Morgan Jones, a native of Basaleg and an alumnus of Jesus College, Oxford, told the following story. In 1669, he said, he was in the area now called South Carolina, when he was captured by some Indians. They were about to put him to death when he muttered a few words in Welsh, and to his surprise the Indians understood him. Naturally they thereupon released him. Not only did Morgan Jones assert that this story was true; he made a formal affidavit to that effect in the year 1685. His misguided sense of humour was destined to have surprising consequences.

For with the coming of the Romantic Movement in literature, and a revival of interest in the strange and the remote, the Madoc legend seized upon people's imaginations. Moreover, it became mixed up with tales of white Indians in the Far West, and so frequently does one hear of men who have met them, that, in moments of weakness, one is inclined to believe these accounts. At length, in September 1792, a young Methodist minister from Waunfawr, Caernarvonshire, one John Evans, decided to go and search for them, in order to bring them 'the blessings of the Christian religion'. He proceeded to Saint Louis (at the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers), but Saint Louis was then in Spanish territory, and the Spanish governor can scarcely be blamed for regarding the missionary with suspicion and throwing him into prison. It was not till August 1795 that he was able to proceed. He then went up the Missouri for 900 miles and wintered with a tribe of friendly Indians. In the spring he proceeded another 300 miles, but he met the Sioux on the war-path and had to return to the friendly tribe. In the summer he departed once more, and ascended the river for still another 900 miles. But he found no Welsh Indians, and, after having been away for two years, he returned to Saint Louis in July 1797, and there, four thousand miles away from the mountains of Arfon, in utter loneliness, he died of fever. This was seven years before Lewis and Clark embarked upon their great expedition in the same region, and it may well be that the upper reaches of the Missouri were first explored by a Methodist minister looking for Welsh Indians.

When colonisation began in the early seventeenth century, there were, no doubt, some Welshmen among the settlers. Included in the list of colonists settled by the Virginia Company in Maine are the names of James Davies, Richard Davies, and Robert Davies. The name of the skipper of the Mayflower, also, was Captain Jones, but whether he was a Welshman or not he was certainly a rascal, and was no great credit to us. The truth is that such names as Davies and Jones are no indication in the seventeenth century of Welsh origin. It is a misapprehension in this matter which has misled so many people about Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island and first exponent of religious toleration. The tradition that he was Welsh is old; Morgan John Rhys, for example, states that he was ' a native of Swansea in Glamorgan'. But this opinion gained currency mainly through the work of Dr Elton, his nineteenth-century biographer. Dr Elton found in the registers of Jesus College, Oxford, that a Rodericus Williams, of Maestroiddyn, in the parish of Conwyl Caio, had matriculated at the College in 1625. Armed with this information he proceeded to Carmarthenshire, and there, in the neighbourhood of Llansawel (and this is in 1852), he met a venerable patriarch who remembered in his youth hearing old people say how they remembered their elders talk of Roger Williams emigrating to America. But, alas, for the long memories of the people of Llansawel, the founder of Rhode Island was educated not at Jesus College, Oxford, but at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and there is no shred of evidence that he was Welsh.

The earliest contribution of Wales to the development of the United States was made by less distinguished men than Roger Williams, although, like him, they were Baptists. The Baptists established themselves in Wales during the Cromwellian period especially in two areas; in the Swansea district, where John Miles of Brazenose College, Oxford, founded the church at Ilston in Gower, and in Radnorshire, the scene of the activities of Vavasor Powell. With the Restoration came the persecution under the Clarendon Code, and, in 1662, the Gower Baptists migrated as a body, and settled in Massachusetts. Although they were Strict Baptists, they were allowed to remain in the state, and in 1667, they incorporated their settlement into the town of Swanzey. Within a century the mother church at Swanzey had established four branches.

Some twenty years later many of the Radnorshire Baptists migrated. By this time, however, Penn had undertaken the settlement of Pennsylvania, and it was to this, more tolerant, colony that the Welsh Baptists now proceeded. They settled at a place (called Pennepeck by the Indians) which is now within the boundaries of the city of Philadelphia. There they were joined by many Baptists from West Wales. In 1701, for example, sixteen members of Rhydwilym and its branches migrated to Philadelphia. They disagreed with their Radnorshire brethren, however, concerning the rite (still practised at Rhydwilym) of the laying on of hands at Baptism, so they purchased 30,000 acres from Penn in what is now the state of Delaware, and there established the Welsh Tract. But, in 1735, there was a mass migration from the Welsh Tract southwards to the Pedee River in South Carolina, where a new settlement was established, called the Welsh neck.

At much the same time as the Radnorshire Baptists, the Quakers of Wales migrated. They had become most numerous in Merioneth and Montgomeryshire, and so thorough was their migration that the sect virtually disappeared from Wales. #

[#Footnote;

Dr R T Jenkins: Hanes Cynulleidfa Hen Gapel Llanuwchllyn (Bala 1937) argues that the number of Quaker emigrants was small. An SPCK circular relating to the 1717-18 Bible speaks of 6,000 Welsh settlers in Pennsylvania: John Davies : Bywyd a Gwaith Moses Williams (Caerdydd 1937). Moses Williams also speaks of emigrants leaving 'yn Heidjau bob blwyddyn i Bennsylania' : Davies, ibid. It may, perhaps, be stated that the numbers were large relative to the population of Wales.]

In Pennsylvania they bought some 40,000 acres of land from Penn, and they seem to have hoped to establish themselves as a separate 'barony', performing all the functions of government in their Quaker meetings, and therefore, presumably, in the Welsh language. But soon their leading men abandoned this policy for one of active participation in the turbulent political life of the whole state. Still, they gave their settlements Welsh names. Thus, Rowland Ellis, of Brynmawr, near Dolgelley, called his settlement by that name, and this, in turn, has become famous throughout the world as the seat of the women's college, Brynmawr College.# Philadelphia, itself, was built adjoining the Welsh area, and, if it is possible to speak of Philadelphia's having streets in those days, it would be true to say that at one time more Welsh was to be heard in those streets than English. But after about 1735 the language tended to disappear.

[# Footnote;

It is of interest to note that the halls of residence for undergraduates in Brynmawr College are called, respectively, Merion, Radnor, Denbigh, and Pembroke. It should be particularly noted that the numerous Welsh names to be found on the outskirts of Philadelphia do not, in most cases, go back to the seventeenth century. They are due to the Welsh enthusiasm of George B Roberts, a President of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and one of the most prominent Welsh-American industrialists in the mid-nineteenth century. It was his practice to give Welsh names to all new stations in the old Welsh area.]

Such, then, were the Welsh of Pennsylvania, who contributed so much to the religious life of their new country, and from whom so many prominent Welsh-Americans trace their descent. A hardworking body of men, intelligent, self-reliant, their loss was one which Wales could ill afford.

Wales's second contribution is intimately connected with the first. This was its contribution to education --- for the Puritans insisted on an educated ministry, and New England was soon dotted with colleges. Here I will confine myself to two names. Of these the first is Elihu Yale. Yale's father had settled in New England in 1637, and together with a few associates he founded the township of New Haven. Later he returned to Boston, and there Elihu was born. But, when the Commonwealth seemed firmly established, the Yale family returned to this country in 1652, and, in time, Elihu entered the services of the East India Company. His career was a spectacular one. He became Governor of Madras, and eventually Governor of the Company itself. When he retired he settled near Wrexham, at Plas Grono, which his father had bought. In 1718 he was asked to help a college which had been started in New Haven, and so greatly was his gift appreciated that it was decided to call it Yale College. And so the name of the old Welsh cantref of Ial became that of one of the most famous universities of the world, and when Yale's magnificent buildings were built in comparatively recent years, one of the University's two great towers was made an exact replica of the tower of Wrexham parish church, where its benefactor lies buried.

More typically Welsh than Yale, however, is Morgan Edwards of Pontypool, founder of Rhode Island College, which has become famous in the United States as Brown University. It was Edwards who secured a charter for it, and in 1767 he returned to this country to collect funds for its establishment. Dr William Richards of Lynn presented his library to it, so that, at the present day, Brown has the best collection of old Welsh books on the American continent.#

[#Footnote;

I omit all reference to John Harvard, the founder of the University of that name, and Jonathan Edwards, the first president of Princeton, for I can find no evidence that either was of Welsh descent, in spite of many statements to that effect.]

With the passing of the Toleration Act, the impulse to mass migration became less insistent, and in the eighteenth century it is only isolated individuals who emigrated. Among them, it will be remembered was Goronwy Owen, who ended his troubled life in America. #

[#Footnote;

Goronwy had no high opinion of his neighbours. 'Hiliogaeth Lladron o bob gwlad ', he writes to Richard Morris, 'yw'r rhan fwyaf o drigolion y fangre hon, ac y mae ysfa ddiawledig ar eu dwylo i fod yn ymyrreth a phethau pobl eraill'. J H Davies (ed): The Letters of Goronwy Owen (Cardiff 1923). Their opinion of him is not recorded.]

But towards the end of the century Wales made its third contribution, this time to the political development of the United States. This was during the War of Independence. It is said that eighteen out of the fifty-six signatories of the Declaration of Independence were of Welsh descent,# and one of them, Francis Lewis, the delegate from New York, was born in Wales. #

[#Footnotes;

1.Among the signatories are the names of William Williams, Robert Morris, Lewis Morris, Francis Lewis, John Adams, Samuel Adams, William Floyd, Stephen Hopkins, Button Gwinett, the signatory from Georgia, was a native of Gloucestershire, but he was closely related to the Buttons of Glamorgan. His brother, Samuel Gwinett, married one of the Buttons and inherited Cottrell through her.

2.In the article is a long reference to the origins of Francis Lewis, especially the book by Julia Delafield ' Biographies of Francis Lewis and Morgan Lewis (New York 1877).]

I have doubts about many of the others, but with the greatest of them all, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration, we are on safer ground. 'The tradition in my father's family', says Jefferson, 'was that their ancestor came from Wales, from near the mountain of Snowdon, the highest in Great Britain. My father's estate on the James River was called Snowdon.' Little is known about his father, however, except that he had risen by his own exertions, and risen sufficiently to marry into the great Randolph family of Virginia. Besides the politicians, it is estimated that no fewer than fourteen of the revolutionary generals were of Welsh descent.#

[#Footnote;

Among them was Brigadier-General Daniel Morgan, who defeated the English in South Carolina and played an important part in securing the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga.]

But it cannot be over-emphasised that the contribution of Wales through these men , generals and politicians alike, was purely genealogical (if contribution it can be called). It is foolish to claim, as is often done, that Wales contributed through them to the political thought of the Revolution, that there was anything Welsh in their conception of liberty.

One Welshman, however, although he never set foot on the American continent, did contribute vitally to America's political development. This was the philosopher, Dr Richard Price. Price's contribution was twofold. In the first place, he may be said to have changed the nature of the Revolution itself. For, to begin with, the Revolution was a conservative one; its purpose was to preserve a system of government against reactionary innovation on the part of George III and his ministers, and it was to the common law rights of Englishmen, and to English constitutional precedents, that the colonists appealed for a redress to their grievances. But early in 1776 there appeared Richard Price's Nature of Civil Liberty, of which 60,000 copies were immediately sold, and of which no fewer than fifteen editions were called for within one year. In this Price advised the colonists to act according to 'the principles of liberty', and not according to 'the practice of former times'; to appeal, not to the legal rights of Englishmen, but to the natural rights of men, and thereby the whole temper of the Revolution was changed. Moreover, Price, in his various writings, drew a glowing picture of the future of America, and this faith in the future destiny of their country has had a great influence in welding together the diverse elements which form the American population into one nationality. In older countries the sentiment of nationality derives mainly from a common background; the essence of national consciousness is a common tradition. But this is lacking in a population made up largely of immigrants, and the part played in other countries by a common tradition has been played in America by a common faith in the future. This America owes as much as anyone, to Dr Richard Price. It is no wonder that the new government invited him to emigrate, and that Yale bestowed an honorary doctorate on him, the only other recipient of the honour at the same time being George Washington himself.

This belief in America as the land of the future and of freedom had its effect in Wales itself, and among those who emigrated at the end of the eighteenth century was Morgan John Rhys. He had been imbued with the ideas of the French Revolution, and his periodical Y Cylchgrawn Cymraeg did much to educate the Welsh people politically. He lived only ten years after emigrating, but he took an active part in the life of the state of Pennsylvania, and his descendants have distinguished themselves in religious and educational matters.#

[#Footnote;

Among his great grandchildren are Dr Rush Rhees, until recently President of the University of Rochester, and Dr Nicholas Murray Butler, the distinguished President of Columbia University.]

At the end of the eighteenth century, also, there came once more a strong motive for mass emigration. This time the impulse was an economic one. The expansion into the valley of the Ohio drew immigrants from the whole of north-western Europe, while the acute economic distress in Wales, consequent upon an unbroken series of bad harvests from 1789 to 1802, made migration a necessity. Morgan John Rhys wrote repeatedly to the Welsh periodicals urging his fellow countrymen to join him, and in 1795 he formed the Cambrian Company of Philadelphia in order to acquire land.#

[#Footnote;

For the company's prospectus see J T Griffith; Rev Morgan John Rhys (Carmarthen 1910) and Plate XII in this volume of the journal]

This he secured in Western Pennsylvania, in what is now Cambria County, and thither went a large group of settlers, mainly from the Llanbrynmair neighbourhood, under the leadership of Ezeciel Hughes.#

[#Footnote;

For an account of their difficulties, due to the press gang, and other reasons, see E Pan Jones ' Cofiant y Tri Brawd' (Bala 1892)]

Morgan John Rhys divided his settlers, for no motive other than convenience, into two groups. The Baptists he placed at Beulah; the Congregationalists and Methodists a few miles away at Ebensburg. He planned Beulah on a large scale, as the chief centre of the county, with a town hall, a school, a library, and other municipal buildings, but it has completely disappeared, while Ebensburg has become a flourishing town.

Once started, agrarian immigration continued throughout the nineteenth century, until it became literally true that there was scarcely a family in rural Wales which did not have a relative in the United States. For the agrarian problem remained the most difficult in Wales to solve, and the oppressed peasantry found its salvation in America. Here its land-hunger was satisfied, especially when the Homestead Act of 1862 made provisions for the free grant of 160 acres to anyone who would cultivate them, and the frustrated ambitions of generations of peasants were at last realised. In the great work of subjugating the wilderness, the sons and daughters of Wales played their part, and it is difficult now to appreciate the sense of freedom which they must have felt when they had become their own masters, living as they did, also, in areas where they were scarcely conscious of the existence of a government. The frontier had its drawbacks, it is true: life was hard, a man's hand was apt to be against his neighbour's, and there was real danger from the Indians, as Welsh settlers found during the terrible Indian War of 1862.#

[#Footnote;

For a graphic account of their experiences see Thomas E Hughes & others ' Hanes Cymry Minnesota (Mankato, Minn 1895)]

It was natural that the Welsh immigrants should settle together, and as the country was opened up townships bearing such names as Wales and Cambria and Powys appeared.#

[#Footnote;

The best account is in R D Thomas ' Yr Ymfudwr, yn cynnwys hanes America ac Awstralia; yn nghyda phob hyfforddiad i ymfudwyr ' (Drefnewydd 1854) ]

But these settlements also had their nationalistic aspect, a desire to live together in order to preserve in their new environment the language and traditions of Wales. An element of this is to be found in the work of Morgan John Rhys, and it becomes more prominent in the course of the century, reflecting, indeed, the growing national consciousness in Wales itself. Of these settlements the most famous is that of Brynffynon in Eastern Tenessee, established in 1855 by Samuel Roberts of Llanbrynmair. Its sad story has frequently been told, and need not be repeated here. Defeated in his objects and financially ruined, in 1866 Samuel Roberts returned to Wales.

But all such attempts were doomed to failure, even apart from the special reasons, the outbreak of the Civil War and the like, which operated in Samuel Roberts's case. In the second generation the children of the immigrants invariably became English in speech and lost their national characteristics. Besides, in a new country there is always much movement of the population, and all groups tend to break up. #

[#Footnote;

Perhaps the most interesting study of a Welsh family group in America is to be found in Chester Lloyd Jones ' Youngest Son' (Madison, Wisconsin 1938). The distinguished author's grandfather emigrated in 1844; the emigrant's maternal grandfather was the Reverend David Lloyd, nephew and successor of the Reverend Jenkin Jones, the founder of the Unitarian Church of Llwynrhydowen. The author's cousin is the world famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.]

Further, it was the deliberate policy of the government to weld all elements in the population into one nation, and it looked with disfavour on any attempt to segregate the Czechs or the Croats or the Lithuanians or the Welsh, or any other national group. This, Michael D Jones came to realise whilst a minister of religion in Cincinnati, and when, in 1865, from consciously nationalist motives, he wished to establish a Welsh settlement, he decided to locate it not in the United States, or in the British empire, but in the Valley of the Chubut in Patagonia.

Wales's last contribution to the United States has been to its industrial development, which became more and more important as the century proceeded, until industrial immigration almost rivalled that from the rural areas.#

[#Footnote;

I have omitted all discussion of the interesting movement of Welsh Mormons to Utah. For this see the writer's ' Y Cymry a'r Eglwys Formonaidd', Y Llenor (1927)]

Among early American inventors the name of Oliver Evans (whose grandfather migrated from Carno) stands in much the same relation to Fulton's steam-driven boat as that of Trevithick does to George Stephenson's railway engine. But a far more important link with Wales was David Thomas, superintendent of the iron works of Richard Parsons at Ynyscedwin. He was the first to succeed in using anthracite coal to smelt iron. This he did in 1837, and two years later he was induced to emigrate to America, where he introduced his process and helped to develop the great anthracite beds of Pennsylvania. By the end of the century the town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, included in its population four and a half thousand natives of Wales, while the neighbouring town of Wilkesbarre had over two thousand, and another two and a half thousand were associated with the iron works of Pittsburg. For a time the copper works of Baltimore were manned almost exclusively by workmen from Swansea and Llanelly, many of whom left later to work in the copper and silver mines of Colorado and California. Slate workers from North Wales settled in Bangor, Pennsylvania, and in Utica, New York, still one of the most important centres of Welsh-American life. And towards the end of the century there came the migration of the tin-plate workers. This industry was, to begin with, essentially Welsh. In 1875, while scarcely any tin-plate was made outside Great Britain, fifty-seven out of the seventy-seven tin-plate works in this country were situated in South Wales, and 73% of their products were exported to the United States. So, when the prohibitive McKinley Tariff (which included a 90% ad valorem duty on tin-plate), was imposed in 1890, the South Wales industry was virtually ruined, and by 1895 over half the works were closed. But, in consequence, skilled men were needed to set up tin-plate works in the United States, and once more there was almost a mass migration.

Nevertheless, although the migration of the tin-plate workers came later, the American census of 1890 marks the highest point in the number of natives of Wales in the United States, a sure proof that rural migration was more important than that from the industrial areas. The figure then stood at 100,079, excluding Monmouthshire. Each successive census has shown a decline, until that of 1930 gives only 60,205, but it is estimated that if, in addition to natives of Wales, those are counted who have one parent born in Wales, the Welsh-Americans of the present day number about a quarter of a million.#

[#Footnote;

For a statistical study see the writer's ' Some figures relating to emigration from Wales', Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, VII (1935) ]

Such were emigrants from Wales, a body of men and women loyal not only to the land of their birth, but also to the land of their adoption. This is proved by the fact noted in the United States censuses of 1920 and 1930 that seventy-three per cent of Welsh immigrants had become citizens of the United States. This shows their determination to settle down in their new country and play their part in its communal life, and not merely to make their fortunes there and then return to spend their money at home. The average for immigrants from all countries is only forty seven per cent, and it is highly significant that in both censuses the figure for Wales heads the list. The loss of some of the best elements in its population is one that Wales could ill afford, and who can estimate the suffering through hiraeth of these Celts in exile? But regret would be useless both on their account and on ours, and we may take comfort in the fact that our loss has been America's gain, and that we have contributed our share in building up the rich and colourful life of the American people of the present day.

David Williams

---

 

Roland G Thorne. National Library of Wales journal. 1977, Summer Volume XX/1

Extracted onto the pages of GENUKI with the kind permission of the National Library of Wales

This is a complete extract of this article (Gareth Hicks May 2003)

---

IN 1820 Thomas Philipps sailed from Bristol in the 'Kennersley Castle' at the head of a hopeful band of over thirty Pembrokeshire emigrants to the Cape: they were a small contingent of the so called '1820 settlers' who gave South Africa its partly British character. Philipps was destined to become one of the pioneers of that settlement, and as such is commemorated in the South African Dictionary of National Biography. His South African career, as described in his letters to his family in Britain, can be studied in professor Arthur Keppel Jones' edition of this correspondence, published in 1960 under the title 'Philipps, 1820 Settler.' The economic advantages of emigration were a constant theme of Philipps' writings, both public and private. Soon after his arrival at the Cape, he wrote to Rev. Thomas Brigstocke, rector of Walwyn's Castle in his native county:

'... Farmers, carpenters, masons, in short all the country trades in the County of Pembroke will be most amply recompensed by emigrating to this Colony, and will always find employment. £6 a month is the common rate of pay for carpenters and masons. Many of them earn enough for their families, and if saving, to buy a couple of cows every month ...'   1

Such were the prospects for country tradesmen, but what made Thomas Philipps their prospector? The answer may be suggested by tracing the early career of this pioneer who found a degree of fulfilment in the 'heavenly climate'   2  of the Cape that was denied him under the greyer skies of home.

His origins were auspicious. On his father's side he was descended from one of those lost tribes of the ancient Welsh house of Cilsant who as the chieftains of the clan, the Philippses of Picton Castle in Pembrokeshire failed to produce male heirs hovered in the wings with great expectations. In 1776, the year of Thomas Philipps' birth, Sir Richard Philipps, 7th baronet, of Picton achieved his apotheosis as Lord Milford in the Irish peerage: but he had no son to inherit his glory. A son was born to his modest kinsman, Rev. Edward (or 'Ned' as he was known) Philipps, rector of Begelly, who had been presented to that living in 1767 by the gift of Lord Milford's widowed mother. This country clergyman's forebears had long been settled in Lampeter Velfre.   3   His father, Thomas Philipps, who died 1st May 1767 aged 65, was described on his memorial at Lampeter church as 'A kind husband, father and friend.' His wife's name was Dorothy. Rev. Edward Philipps (born 1737) was their youngest child. The eldest, Philipp, an attorney, married in 1759 Anne, daughter and heir of John Smith of Jeffreston, high sheriff in 1753, and left issue who made their home at Jeffreston ; the second son, John Philipps of Begelly died unmarried leaving his property by a will dated 11 April 1777, to his younger brother Edward. A daughter, Cecilia, died unmarried at Tenby in 1805.

Rev. Edward Philipps, a graduate of Pembroke College, Oxford, married, by a licence dated 5 December 1774, Catherine Harries, then of Cardigan, daughter of the late Rev. John Harries of St. Ishmael, Carms., Archdeacon of Cardigan, whose wife Mary Lewis was of a Lampeter Velfre family. Catherine had a brother Rev. Charles Harries, sometime of Panteague, Llandewi Velfre, who died vicar of Llangyfelach, Glam., in 1794, and two sisters Maria Elizabeth and Ann who lived as maiden ladies at Haverfordwest were the recipients of fond letters from their nephew in South Africa until their deaths in 1823 and 1833 respectively.

When Thomas Philipps was two years old, his father who was already a magistrate, was presented by Lord Milford to the rectory of his native Lampeter Velfre. He held this further mark of Picton Castle patronage until his death on 2 April 1793, aged 56. Apart from his eldest son Thomas, and two daughters who died in infancy, he left two sons and three daughters. John Philipps, the second son, settled in London as a merchant and married Lucretia daughter of James Pinnock of Jamaica, by whom he had a daughter Elizabeth, wife firstly of John James Ormsby and secondly of the Marquis de la Pron le Roy. Richard the third son died unmarried. Of the daughters, Mary Dorothea, the eldest, was married in London on 25 February 1796 to Nathaniel Phillips of Slebech, a prosperous former West Indian planter, as his second wife. Her mother, Catherine Philipps, died at Slebech on 6 May 1803, aged 55. The second daughter, Cecilia, became in 1801 the wife of Charles Allen Philipps of St. Brides, while the youngest, Catherine, married in turn Aldborough Richardson, of Wimpole Street, and Lt. Gen. the Hon. Sir Henry King. Unlike her elder sisters she had no children, but she was a devoted genealogist, and the loyal and affectionate champion at home of her brother in South Africa.

This was the family background of Thomas Philipps. He was evidently intended for the law. His father's death when he was seventeen with younger brothers and sisters to provide for must have been unsettling; and although he was described as of Gray's Inn in 1800, it does not appear that he took up law. On 30 July 1801 he was married at St. Mary's Islington to Charlotte Harriet Arbouin, of Highbury Place, Middlesex: his address was then 'City Chambers', that of his brother John. His bride was the fourth daughter of Matthew Arbouin, merchant of 17 Mincing Lane, son of Francis Arbouin, brandy merchant of the same place. Her father had died in 1792, four years after her mother. Her brothers Samuel and James were London merchants formerly engaged in the Bordeaux wine trade, 4  and her eldest sister Sophia was the wife of another merchant, Roger Harries of Islington, (d. 1839) who seems to have been a relative of Philipps on his mother's side, possibly even her brother. Thomas Philipps remained in touch with these other Harries connexions of his, and in 1830 welcomed their only child, William Mathew Harries and his newly wedded wife, Anna Maria, youngest daughter of Abel Walford Bellairs of Haverfordwest, as emigrants to South Africa.

Thomas Philipps' mercantile connexions by marriage doubtless provided the impetus for his first career as a banker. He is reported to have started in this line...................

.................. in East Anglia, but this has not been confirmed. In fact, in 1802 he and his brother John appears as wine merchants at Old City chambers in the London trade directories, and are listed there until 1804, after which John and John Philipps appear at the same address. Not long after his marriage, Thomas Philips became a partner with his brother in law Charles Allen Philipps of St. Brides Hill in the Milford and Pembrokeshire Bank, with a counting house at Milford. He resided first at Neeston Hall, and then at Gelliswick, nearby. Francis Green in his essay on Early Banks in West Wales   5  stated that it was carried on under the style of 'Charles Philipps, Thomas Philipps & Co.' and reported that the earliest extant note is dated 28 July 1802. He offered an illustration of a bank note signed by Thomas Philipps in 1808. He pointed out that the note bears a heraldic emblem and motto (ducit amor patriae) which derive from the arms of the St. Brides family, but mistakenly supposed that Thomas Philipps was of that clan. The immediate connection was by marriage. Thomas Philipps remained in touch with his erstwhile business partner after his emigration, until Charles Allen Philipps' death in 1827, and subsequently with his daughters.

The Milford and Pembrokeshire Bank, one of several such country banks that sprang up in West Wales in the aftermath of the stoppage of cash payments by the Bank of England in 1797, was at first well supported. Among its capitalist patrons were Samuel Levi Phillips, founder of the Haverfordwest Bank, who held a share of £1,000 in the capital stock of the bank, but the mainstay was Nathaniel Phillips of Slebech, Thomas Philipps' brother in law. While many of these country banks crashed in 1826, the Milford and Pembrokeshire bank had a much shorter career. Its troubles arose partly from Thomas Philipps' incompetence and combination of banking with trading ventures, but were complicated by Pembrokeshire politics, as the Milford Bank papers among the Slebech collection at the National Library of Wales indicate. 6  All went well until 1807, and in that year Nathaniel Phillips strengthened the Bank's resources by offering Henry Leach, collector of the customs at Milford, a security of £2,000 in return for Leach's depositing with the Bank 'all such monies as he can conveniently spare from time to time until 28 July 1811 provided he may withdraw it on demand without abatement'.

Then on 2 Jan., 1808 Thomas Philipps informed Nathaniel Phillips that he had to go to London '... to arrange some pecuniary disappointments which I have lately met with by bills to the amount of £5,000 being dishonoured ... 'evidently by Geddes & Co. With a view to raising £5,000 from the London bank to which the Milford Bank was affiliated, Messrs Bosanquet, Beechcroft and Reeves, he sought and obtained a bond for £5,000 from Nathaniel Phillips as security. His own securities for this include shares of varying proportions in six Milford vessels, the Margaret, the Catherine and Edward, the London Packet, the Ceres, the Morning Sun and the Aurora; and a list of stock including timber, tar, biscuit, rum and other spirits, wine 'at Bristol', cheese, butter and oats. These would be his stock in trade in his mercantile partnership at Milford with his brother John. On 7 January 1808 ...................

...................Thomas Philipps wrote from London to say that he had 'arranged everything satisfactorily', 'a little more frightened than hurt ...' and reviewed the commercial situation:

'It is generally thought that Talleyrand is in Holland for the purpose of negotiating with this country with greater facility. Whether this is true or not it has had a great effect on the funds-omnium to-day is 2 3/4 To-morrow the dividends will be paid which would of itself raise them a little. A great deal of coffee was bought at advanced prices this week by the Dutch merchants. Altogether I find very little fear of Bonaparte's decrees amongst merchants in general ...'

He concludes 'We have such foggy weather that I can scarce see to write.'

This panic over, all went smoothly for a while, though in October 1808, on his way back from killing a few pheasants at his sister's, Mrs Richardson's country lodge near Andover, Philipps was the only injured passenger of fifteen or sixteen, when the coach he was travelling in overturned near Staines; he bled a great deal from the broken window glass, but emerged with only 'a small cut above my right eye.' In the New Year, too, he was prevented from joining the Slebech party in a visit to the Richardsons, not by the snow, but by a man-of-war arriving at Milford and by postal delays affecting his business. A few days later Nathaniel Phillips was pained to discover that Thomas Philipps without consulting him negotiated the removal of the Milford Bank London account from Bosanquet's to Harrison's, using his name as surety; when he informed Thomas' brother in London, John Philipps, about this, the latter made reassuring noises:

'... I can only attribute it', he wrote, 'to his wishing to have two strings to his bow in case Bosanquet & Co should displease him. I am extremely sorry that he should have made use of your name in the improper manner that he has ...'

On 14 January 1809, Thomas Philipps himself wrote to Nathaniel Phillips from Milford, where it had snowed hard that day, that he wished to transfer to Harrisons 'for our present bankers' charges and conduct will never suffer us to get on comfortably, had it not been for the Receiver General going round this month instead of as usual in April, we should have been very flush . . .' He assured his brother in law that his security for £5,000 would suffice for the new account as before, and that the Milford Bank would meet this 'as soon as Geddes pays or as soon as we can change'. The Milford Bank's securities would be Charles Philipps' life insurance policy, as well as the farm mortgaged by Charles Philipps to Nathaniel Phillips, which mortgage he hoped to redeem that year. In conclusion, Thomas Philipps added a hint that things were looking up: 'I have arranged a very good agency at Cardigan with Mr. William Bowen of Llwyngwair. He now resides at Cardigan and has an office as General Distributor of the Stamps for the three counties ...'

Nathaniel Phillips was thus asked to guarantee the new account with Harrison's, as well as that with Bosanquet's: Thomas Philipps' brother john was also enlisted in the same cause: and Thomas Philipps' own list of securities indicates an interest..........

........................in the cargoes of the vessels 'Margaretta', 'Flora', 'Susannah,' 'Catherine and Edward', 'Morning Star', 'Carmarthen,' including butter, cheese and oats, and in certain ships being repaired, namely the 'Mary Hall,' 'The George and Mary', the 'Betsey, the 'Commerce,' the 'William', the 'American Schooner,' the 'Active', the 'Pigeon, 'the St. Patrick', and the 'Alliance'.

In February 1809, Thomas Philipps obtained Nathaniel Phillips' security for £5,000 to transfer the Milford Bank's account with Bosanquet to another bank, again offering Charles Philipps' life insurance of £5,000 at the Provident Life Insurance office and his farms of Windmill Park, Heythog, etc., as securities. Nathaniel obliged, but endorsed the application 'The above security has not been lodged with Mr. N.P.' On 4 October 1809, Nathaniel also obliged, when Thomas Philipps opened up a new account with Messrs. Masterman and Co. '(i.e. Masterman, Peters, Mildred, Scorer and Maud). These changes of account are unexplained, but when the affairs of the Milford Bank next surface in March 1810, they are near shipwreck: one Wednesday that month, Thomas Philipps wrote to Nathaniel from his residence at Gelliswick:

'... I shall be prevented coming home till to morrow evening. I am obliged to be on the spot in consequence of the cruel reports which are extending against the Bank and which occasions a considerable run against us and we have many enemies who do not discourage the rumour although our friends are doing everything in their power --- added to this money is so extremely scarce in town that John says he can hardly raise it on the last Banker's bill---and our payments to Dubuisson (Receiver General for the three counties) and orders on sight in London in consequence of our determination to pay all demands at sight have taken £8,000 hard cash from us. If the rumour does not subside soon I am fearfull of the consequences except we have assistance ...'

Then on 21 March Thomas Philipps wrote again from Milford:

'Yesterday and to day I have been harrassed to death with people coming in for payment of our notes---in your hands our fate now lies and you must either support us or ourselves and families are for ever ruined---about 15,000 in our Banker's hands in town will save us for ever. The cry against us [is] from Lord Cawdor's tenants and had not my friends Mr [Henry] Leach, Mr. Shaw [of Milford] etc convinced the people of the falsity, we could not have got over the day. [Samuel] Levi [Phillips] and [John] Bateman [of Haverfordwest, bankers] continue our friends but the large sums I am hourly obliged to draw, will alarm the Bankers in town. You will however save us if you will write to our Bankers in town to-night or by to morrow's post --- to say you will be ready to be security as far as 5 or 10,000 £ as soon as you can get to town. It is the opinion of all our friends that if we can get over this that our fortunes will be made. Your decision will either plunge me into despair or elevate to the highest pitch of happiness and gratitude to you

(PS) If you could show yourself at Haverfordwest to morrow and talk to a few tradesmen it will have an excellent effect.'

Later the same day Philipps wrote again:

'With the assistance of the Banks of Haverfordwest and the noble and liberal spirit of my friends here I have got through to day with credit and paid above 50 people. Some are gone home with our own notes satisfied and all quite (?) riled that they had been duped. I have been obliged to draw so largely to Mr. Thomas Bowen (of Haverfordwest, Banker) and Levi (Phillips) for their notes that I nust have some credit in London or we must be ruined. I hope my Dear Sir you will support us. Mr. Leach, Mr. Shaw and Mr Bowling of Pembroke stood behind the desk with us assisting in counting out our bills. I hope to hear from you to morrow'.

At this point, some explanation of the run on the Milford Bank by 'Lord Cawdor's tenants' is called for. Nathaniel Phillips had aspired as early as 1806 to the parliamentary seat for Haverfordwest, then occupied by Lord Kensington, and in 1809 had subscribed handsomely to an association to secure the independence of Haverfordwest from the Blue party who controlled the corporation under the aegis of Lord Milford of Picton Castle and Lord Kensington. Nathaniel Phillips' party sported the orange colours, which were those of John Owen of Orielton who hoped to snatch the county seat from Lord Milford and the Blues. Owen himself subscribed towards the independent club at Haverfordwest and early in 1810 this Orange league were busily harrassing the Blue Corporation. Lord Cawdor, who had an eye to the county seat for his son, was able to embarrass the Orange cause by hitting at their financial credit: he knew that the Milford Bank was virtually Nathaniel Phillips' creature, and that Thomas Philipps, despite his connexion with the Picton Castle family, was drawn by his brother in law of Slebech into the Orange orbit: he and other Blues therefore had no hesitation in assisting in the run on the Milford Bank. The Banks at Haverfordwest referred to were those of Samuel Levi Phillips and Co. (the Haverfordwest Bank, founded in 1783 and collapsed in the country bank crash of 1826) and the Union Bank, a consortium founded in 1802 which included amongst its partners John Bateman, attorney, of Haverfordwest John Marten of Laugharne, and Thomas Waters and Herbert Lloyd, of Carmarthen, as well as Thomas Bowen, and later, John Mathias of Haverfordwest. The Union Bank, doomed to collapse in 1814, was also orientated towards the Orange Party and it is the less surprising that it did what it could to save the Milford Bank; while Samuel Levi Phillips had also had a financial stake in the latter.

Meanwhile, rapid action being called for to save the Bank, the seventy eight year old Nathaniel Phillips reluctantly gave an assurance, 23 March, which was published in the 'Cambrian' newspaper, the Swansea paper that then served the whole of West Wales, that he would be accountable for the notes of the Milford Bank. The bank partners, who wished Phillips to be answerable for up to £3,000 also made a bid to raise credit to the same amount in the trade by offering as security to their guarantor 'all and singular our property real and personal' as well as Col. Charles Allen Philipps' life insurance of £10,000, he being fifty years of ....................

................age, plus bills for £30,000 drawn on and accepted by John and John Philipps at twelve months' (i.e. Thomas Philipps brother's firm in London). It subsequently transpired that John Philipps had hastily signed an agreement to answer for £30,000 in this way without realising what it was, and 'not having access to the books', knew nothing of the plight of the bank.

Thomas Philipps did not succeed in finding fresh capital security, though in June a new London bank, Messrs W. F. Hubbard & Co. offered to introduce him to 'two young men of respectability and capital' to join him in a banking venture without reference to previous liabilities of course.' Nathaniel Phillips inevitably bore the brunt: Messrs Stratton, Gibson and Fuller of Great St. Helens in the City informed him:

'From the present state of Messrs T. Philipps & Co and J. & J. Philipps & Co's affairs we must withdraw their bills from the Bank ... Will you have the goodness to accept the £20,000 payable at two months and so renew the amount every two months till your original acceptance will become due ... We have spoken to the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank who conceive this would be the better way of settling this truly unpleasant business ...'

Meanwhile Thomas Philipps informed John Philipps from Milford, 2 July 1810:

'... Owing to the kindness of Mr. T(homas) Bowen (of the Union Bank) I was enabled to go on paying but I can do so no longer than to-morrow or next day at the very furthest; I have a continued crowd at my door. Brown (accountant of the Milford Bank) says not a word of Masterman. He must know that Lloyd's bill not being accepted would occasion most likely my instant arrest and I know not if I shall be a free agent to morrow to sign any agreement . . . The only plan is to make us bankrupts and commence a new firm with N(athaniel) P(hillips.) It would save him from any advance for ever and put money in his pocket. All my friends are calling and writing to me on the subject. Mr. P(hillips) would have saved many thousands had he acted with decision'.

So in July 1810 the Milford Bank collapsed, and the business of winding up commenced. The accountant John Brown, assisted by Thomas Philipps's brother in law Roger Harries of Islington, went through the books, and on 23 July Brown informed Nathaniel Phillips that the number of outstanding notes issued by the Bank amounted to £22,289, not about £17,000 as he at first thought at a guess. Roger Harries established that Thomas Philipps' own commercial concerns seemed to lie 'in so narrow a compass that it will not be so difficult as matter as I imagined it would prove to ascertain the debts and effects belonging to him'. The Bank's general statement indicated that they had in all issued £52,717, of which £8,417 had been cancelled and burnt, and £22,011 had been discharged and were in their possession or at Masterman's bank.

Winding up Thomas Philipps' affairs took longer than expected. Roger Harries found that there were 'still five months transactions to post in the ledger,................

.......................now being done by the clerk 'who appears to be very conversant in book keeping'. Walters' absence at this time is unlucky and proves another obstacle in our way as various explanations are wanting which he alone can give . . .' So he informed John Philipps on 25 July, adding that Thomas Philipps, who had been assisting them at his counting house, and himself had gone to a late dinner at St. Brides Hill the day before and stayed overnight. He reported 'Your sister supports her spirits admirably. She already is prepared for a great reverse but Mr C(harles) P(hilipps) means only to let her know the full extent of the mischief gradually ...'

Charles Philipps, the drowsiest of all sleeping partners, had himself been startled to learn of his plight the previous month, when the necessity of his going to London to assist in the dissolution of the bank had brought it home to him. Thomas Philipps' wife, according to Roger Harries, was in 'very tolerable spirits at Gellyswick', while the man himself was irrepressible:

'T. P. is now full of expectation of getting a large sum in damages from Mr. Higgon of Haverfordwest, who was heard by witnesses (ready to come forward) to say when Mr. Phillips' promise to the note-holders was mentioned at the Reading Room that the whole was a swin[dlin]g transaction. He talks seriously of commencing a prosecution . . .

The day before, Nathaniel Phillips had received a letter from John Brown at Milford, dated 21 July, saying that while he was trying to placate the noteholders, others were taking advantage of their plight:

'... I have the most unquestionable authority (even of the parties themselves) when I say that Mr. Philip Phillips, Mr. Francis Rotch, and Mr. Samuel Starbuck have formed the necessary arrangements in order to their establishing a bank here, as soon as they know that you determine to give up that idea ...'

He added that, to his embarrassment, they had offered him the management of the Bank. Philip Phillips was a son of Samuel Levi Phillips of the Haverfordwest Bank, while Francis Rotch and Samuel Starbuck were prominent members of the Quaker community of American origin settled at Milford, who had not always seen eye to eye with Thomas Philipps. This was the coup de grace, and even friendly observers like Thomas Bowers of the Union Bank urged that the only creditable step remaining for the Milford Bank, or more realistically for Nathaniel Phillips, was to relieve the poorer noteholders who had held on to their paper currency on Nathaniel Phillips' word. On 27th July 1810 Thomas Philipps, realising that the game was up as far as he was concerned, wrote to his sister of Slebech:

'... I take this opportunity of begging you to assure Mr. Phillips that I lament the loss he will sustain from me and that I hope he will not continue to judge so harshly of my conduct as I am informed from Mr. Brown he does. I hope he will take into his consideration that when I solicited his assistance it was not done with any selfish view of continuing in a state of extravagance as to personal gratification for that fault cannot...................

.............be laid to my charge even by my enemies, but I fondly hoped with every assistance I received I should be enabled to continue in a business which was daily improving, and which if it had been carried on would have enabled me in time to have paid everyone. In this I have been mistaken, and I am prepared to undergo the dreadfull alternative. One shock might yet be spared me and if it could by your intercession with Mr. Phillips who has it in his power to prevent it, I will bear all with fortitude although the very bed we sleep on must and will be sold by auction if as I expect the firm of Thomas Philipps become bankrupts. The first wish of my heart therefore is to prevent Charles Philipps etc being bankrupts. They may deliver up all their effects without being gazetted---the effect will be the same, but the manner will be different, all our property in the latter case will be obliged to be sold by auction. When I contemplate my poor sister's situation I had rather die a thousand deaths than that she should suffer such a mortification. I repeat that I am willing to have everything of mine sold in any way. Mr. P(hillips) will alone prevent this by showing even an inclination to pay our bills at some future time even. I will not enter into detail of the matters alledged against me but my future efforts will be used to rectify the evils occasioned, my prospects for a sinking man are not discouraging and I will make a solemn vow to Heaven that Mr (Philips) of Hill shall have half of any halfpenny I can get. I care not now for any mortification which I may receive. Could I but hear that my dear sister of Hill would be saved further trouble. She has suffered for the last few months perhaps as much real sorrow as ever fell to the lot of a mother and her behaviour has so astonished me that I cannot express how very superior a woman I consider her ...'

While Thomas Philipps wrote this pathetic letter to his sister, his mind was still working on a face-saving solution. On 28 July Roger Harries, writing to Nathaniel Phillips, reported that the Milford Bank's debt was in fact reducible to £20,000, and that at Thomas Philipps' request he enclosed a plan to deal with this, which was that the firm should resume business under the title of Charles Philipps & Co., under John Brown's management, with Roger Harries acting as overseer and recommending their London bankers. Thomas Philipps was to have no concern whatever in it, a point that was emphazised as if it were a recipe for success in business without really trying. The issue of notes was not to exceed £20,000. All current customers could be kept, 'excepting the Custom House, Mr. Leach having been obliged to fix with the new firm about to be established'. Nathaniel Phillips was to be a partner 'without advancing a single penny'; it was in fact an expedient to keep Charles Philipps afloat, with the additional enticement of a fund to liquidate the debt due to Nathaniel Phillips from his hapless proteges.

Nathaniel Phillips' decision was now awaited. As early as 17 July it had been to him that the Swansea Quaker bankers, Gibbins, Eaton and Gibbins, signing themselves 'Thy Friends' had applied for the redemption of about £70 of Milford Bank notes: they were to play principal creditors in the liquidation of the Union Bank five years later. At this juncture, however, the Union Bank, too, pressed Nathaniel Phillips for satisfaction: they held a considerable number of Milford ...................

.......................Bank Notes, so Thomas Bowen informed Roger Harries on 14 August 1810. Relaying this demand to Nathaniel Phillips on 17 August, Harries advised him not to resist payment, as it would enable him to name his own terms. He added that John Brown had refuted on oath a malicious paragraph in the London papers exaggerating the liabilities of the Milford Bank: but he too was anxious for a decision, as his future career was in the balance. There was some uncertainty as to what Nathaniel Phillips would do. Thomas Philipps feared the worst, as Phillips had not acknowledged his plan to save Charles Philipps' reputation, and on 10 August wrote to Phillips that while he understood that he was reluctant to pay up, he feared that Phillips had compromised himself by past assurances. He was himself threatened with arrest in consequence of Phillips' having put it on record that he guaranteed the Bank £30,000. As bait, Philipps added:

'Levi Phillips has had such excessive run against him in consequence of connecting himself with Ro(t)ch and Starbuck that he was obliged to have several remittances from London. They have not yet started and it is now doubted if they will seeing the country so much against them. I wish you could be induced to establish a Bank and I assure you my sole motive is that it might be an income to Mr. P(hilipps) of Hill and a saving of advance to you'.

Nathaniel Philipps remained immovable.

On 25 August, Roger Harries wrote to him to say that he concluded that Phillips would not commit himself in writing, and commiserating with him in the losses suffered 'from the late disastrous failure of the three houses' added that even so 'the share which falls to the lot of Mr. Charles Philipps render(s) the others comparatively light,' and that he feared his mind might sink under it. The bankruptcy was gazetted that evening. Thomas Philipps' mercantile partnership at Milford with his brother John and the latter's London firm had met the same fate ten days before.'

Letters from distressed noteholders poured in. Richard Charles Fenton of Glynamel wrote stoutly to Nathaniel Phillips, 28 August, that his mother who had already applied to him for the purpose was a victim of Phillips' assurance published in The Cambrian: 'I really think you are liable, nay bound in justice to the public to cash the notes of the Milford Bank'. His mother held £9. 3s. William Cozens of Sandy Haven, who wrote the same day held £171. 2s, and had 'immediate occasion' for the cash, and E. James of Pembroke held 'near £200' and wanted the money 'as soon as possible'. W. Hawkins and Co of Swansea Old Bank held £212, and requested payment.

After the liquidation in September and October 1810, when their creditors met at the Guildhall, London but did not complete their business until 30 July 1811, Thomas Philipps set about redeeming his name as a trader under the bankruptcy laws at Milford. He was bent on political revenge on the Blues, and a letter of his to Nathaniel Phillips, the last in the Slebech papers, dated 22 February 1811 shows him eager to secure the election of Orange councillors to the Corporation of...........

...........Haverfordwest, and still prepared to advise Phillips how to spend his money for this purpose. In fact, Phillips was no longer prepared to trust him with the purse strings, though he was prepared to trust his cousin Thomas Philipps of Jeffreston (now of Haverfordwest). Nathaniel Phillips, candidature for Haverfordwest at the general electiou of 1812 was thwarted by Blue solidarity, and he conceded defeat. When he died in 1814, Thomas Philipps and his affairs received no mention in his will, though Roger Harries was one of the trustees, and his family went abroad.

Philipps wrote plaintively from Gelliswick to a member of the government, Williain Huskisson, on 29 December 1814.   8

'Sir,

Presuming that the consideration of the finances of the country will be in a great measure confided to your care, I take the liberty, altho' a perfect stranger to you, to offer you some ideas on the provincial paper currency of the Kingdom, a subject which from its extreme delicacy is seldom publicly agitated or indeed separated from the general or Bank of England paper currency: the former is greatly depreciated whatever the latter may be.

I was engaged in a Bank at this place some years ago which unfortunately failed and involved my partner and self in ruin, since which engaged as a merchant I have had more leisure to contemplate the consequences of indiscriminate issues of provincial paper and am lead to make the following conclusions.

A Country Bank, established by men of real property and money and none of the Partners engaged in hazardous trades, who prudently lent their notes to industrious farmers or tradesmen, was during the late war a blessing to its neighbourhood and most undoubtedly contributed in a great measure to aid the Government in the collection of the heavy burdens unavoidably levied on the Country. If it was possible by any regulation to confine the issuing of paper to such men, the evil would not be great, but even if the legislature was to interfere, the steps to be taken must be very gradual and liable to constant evasion. Many plans have been suggested, but in my opinion nothing short of weaning the country altogether from provincial paper, will restore the true value of paper curreney. I do not mean that country banks should be prohibited but that they should not be suffered after a time to issue smaller notes than £5 --- reverting to their establishment previous to their circulating £1 and £2. I date the depreciation of country paper from that period and you will find the number of Banks increasing tenfold, encouraged by the avidity with which local notes were received and the totally withdrawing of gold and Bank of England paper, the latter under the propagated idea that they might be forged, were brought in, gladly exchanged, and remitted off to London.

It will be quite unnecessary to enlarge on this evil, to you, it must be well known to be so; it will be prudent to commence the remedy with delicacy and secresy and the first step I should propose, should be that all payments which come out of the public purse should be made with Bank of England paper sent from London for the purpose. For example there are two Government establishments at this port, namely, the Royal Dockyard and the Custom House, these draw about £80,000 in bills at sight on the Commissioners of the Navy and the Commissioners of the Customs. These bills are passed through a country bank who give in exchange their own £1 and £2 notes, which are immediately paid away to the officers, workmen, etc, etc. It is a known fact that there are not only douceurs, but even regular salaries allowed to those who draw on Government and take local notes in exchange, and I can state as a positive fact that a Bank has been formed at Pembroke solely on the promise of paying the Dock Yard men. How easy would it be for the proper officers in London, to transmit, in the Post Office bags per mail coach Bank of England notes of £1 and £2 to the different stations where..................

..................Government payments were to be made. By this means sterling paper would reappear in the country and everything else would soon find its medium. Bank of England paper in reference to provincial is at this time at a premium of 5 per ct. lt is true every bank would exchange their notes gratis---still whoever makes such a demand is looked upon as an enemy. There is another reason why Government should pay in Bank of England notes.

The Kingdom keeps their banking account with the Bank of England. The latter frequently assists the former and in return they ought not to make their payments in any other Bankers notes, but should assist their circulation. It is true the one pays a duty and of course aids the Revenue of the country, but this should not weigh on such a momentous question as the improvenent of the currency of the Nation.
I have conscientiously given you my opinion and in some measure against my inmediate welfare. If it will at all aid you in your difficult task it will answer the purpose of

                                        Sir,

                                                        Your obedient and humble servant

                                                                                Thomas Philipps

After this philosophical gloss on his failure Thomas Philipps turned his back on his banking career. Family tradition makes a political quarrel with Lord Milford the motive for his emigration. No clear cut evidence survives on this, though it is true that Philipps had been drawn by his brother in law of Slebech into the opposite camp in politics, and thereby prejudiced any standing he may have had with the ageing peer. Professional failure was the heart of the matter: and the disapproval of Nathaniel Phillips of Slebech and embarrassment of his other brother in law at Hill had consequences sufficient to drive his restless spirit to pastures new.

ROLAND THORNE

London

 APPENDIX

According to E. Morse Jones' 'Roll of British Settlers in South Africa (1971) the list of Philipps' contingent of emigrants was as follows: Thomas Philipps banker aged 44 (leader); Charlotte his wife aged 43; Catherine their daughter 17; Edward their son 16; Charlotte their daughter 14; Sophia their daughter 17; Frederick 9; Emma 6; and John 4.

The others were: Richard Butler aged 19; John Davis aged 38 and his son William aged 13; John Davis aged 23; William Davis aged 21; William Estment aged 16; Joshua Few, mason, aged 30 ;John Gittins aged 23 ; Benjamin James aged 27; David James aged 18 ; John James aged 21; Ann John aged 25 (with the leader) ; Charles Jones, joiner aged 21; William Jones aged 26 ; Robert Larkum aged 18; John Mack aged 19; Thomas Matthias aged 22; Mary Owen aged 20 (with the leader); Robert Owen aged 23; Jolm Phelps aged 25, mason; Henry Phillip aged 25; James Phillip aged 23; William Phillip aged 21; John Prout aged 23; David Pugh aged 23; John Rhenish aged 30; wife Catherine 30; son William 10; James Richards aged 22; Phillip Richards aged 25 and his wife Mary aged 22; William Rickards aged 21; George Shellard aged 25; John Stratton aged 25; wife Jane 22; Elizabeth (da) 2; Martha Thomas aged 18 (with the leader); Samuel Whareham 18 and wife Elizbeth 26; Peter Williams aged 25.

The 'Kennersley Castle' sailed from Bristol in December 1819, reaching Table Bay in March 1820 and Algoa Bay in April. The Pembrokeshire immigrants settled on an arm of the Bush River, at a place which Philipps named Lampeter. By 1825 the other settlers had dispersed leaving Philipps and his family at Lampeter. It is now (wrongly) called New Bristol.

 

Notes;

1. A Keppel Jones ' Philipps, 1820 Settler', Pietermaritzburg 1960, page 78. The original letters in 5 volumes are preserved in the Cory library, Rhodes University, Grahamstown.

2. Ibid., p. 212.

3.  In view of the difficulties of ascertaining their pedigree, kindly pointed out to me by my friend Major Francis Jones, I go back no farther than Thomas Philipps.

4. PRO, Chatham mss 30/8/108 f147, Samuel Arbouin to W. Pitt 25 Feb. 1799.

5. West Wales Recs vi. 159.

6. What follows draws on N.L.W. Slebech MSS 9503-9552.

7. Gazette (1810) p. 1280, 1295; Times, 15, 27 Aug; 3, 5 Oct; 5 Nov 1810; 30 July 1811

8. BM, Huskisson MSS, Add. 38739 f. 327.

---

 

Bob Owen, National Library of Wales Journal, Winter 1950, Vol VI/ 4

Extracted onto the pages of GENUKI with the kind permission of the National Library of Wales

This is a complete extract of this article by Gareth Hicks [July  2002].

See also Welsh Newspapers and Journals in the United States

 

---

[Readers of this Journal will recollect that the Summer, 1942, issue was given over entirely to matters of Welsh-American interest, and that a list was included of 'Welsh Newspapers and Journals in the United States'. The list was compiled by Mr Idwal Lewis of the staff of this Library, and is based mainly on our own holdings together with references given by T M Jones ('Gwenallt') in his Llenyddiaeth fy Ngwlad (Treffynnon, 1893).

We are please to be able in this issue to supplement the information given in that list with the following valuable contribution by Mr Bob Owen. An asterisk before a title in the list indicates that there is a file in the National Library of Wales of that particular periodical or newspaper, and that issues contained in the Library's file are indicated within square brackets. --- Editorial note].

 

Yr Ardlais. 1894-5

A periodical for the use of the Welsh Americans, published by P M Evans Co, Chicago.

 

Yr Adolygydd Chwarterol. 1852

A Welsh quarterly review. The first number was issued in the summer of 1852 and was edited by John W Jones, Utica, NY. The price was one dollar per annum. The pages of this review were confined mostly to matters relating to Art and Science.

 

#Yr Aelwd (The Hearth). 1926-1934. [1933-March, April].

A periodical of four pages to each number, published partly in English and partly in Welsh by the Presbyterian Church, Moriah, Utica, NY.

 

Yr Afon. Sometime before 1871.

A periodical published by the Welsh Baptists of the USA. As far as I know, however, there are no copies available in Public Libraries either in America or in Great Britain.

 

Yr Amserau. 1862---

A newspaper published for the Welsh in Utica, NY. It only lasted a few months, and I know of no existing copies.

 

Anthemydd Solffa. ?1868 -1870?

A monthly organ published for the Welsh musicians of the USA, under the editorship of 'Isalaw', similar to the one that was published in Wales. I have not seen a copy, but it is mentioned in a newspaper scrap-book as having been published in the United States during the years above-mentioned.

 

#Yr Arweinydd. 1858-1861. [1858 --- Nos 5,6,8,10,,12,18-20; 1860 --- No 72]

A periodical first issued on 10 January 1858. It was published by R R Meredith at Rome, County Oneida, NY, and edited by the Rev Thomas T Evans, Floyd. It contained sixteen pages, 12mo, was issued on the 10th and 25th day of each month, and cost 75 cents per annum. The editor of the poets' corner was 'Eos Glan Twrch', a native of Llanuwchllyn, Merionethshire.

In the year 1860, this periodical appeared with 24 pages octavo, under the editorship of the Rev William Hughes, of Utica, NY.

Fortunately all four volumes are available in the Harvard University Library.

 

Baner America. 1868-1877.

A Welsh newspaper published in Hyde Park, Pa, by a Company. The first editors were the Rev Morgan A Ellis, the Rev Frederick Evans, and the Rev David Parry ('Dewi Moelwyn'). Henry M Edwards was the agent or organiser. On the retirement of the above-mentioned persons it was edited by Thomas B Morris ('Gwyneddfardd'), and W S Jones became its chief organiser. During this period it was published in Scranton, Luzerne, Pa.

This newspaper earned for itself a good reputation on both sides of the Atlantic.

 

Baner y Bobl.

According to Y Drych, 31 July 1924, this journal was published at Hyde Park, Pa, and was issued for the Welsh people.

 

Y Bardd. Newyddyr Wythnosol. 1856-c1857.

In the list of Welsh newspapers printed in the USA, which appeared in Y Drych, 1890, this newspaper is recorded as having been first issued in 1856, and according to an article that appeared in Y Cymro (edited by Isaac Foulkes) it is said to have run for two years, a statement which is confirmed in the above-mentioned list in Y Drych.

 

#Y Bardd. Pythefnosolyn llenyddawl. 1858. [Nos 1,2,4,5]

As stated by T M Jones ('Gwenallt') in his book entitled Llenyddiaeth fy Ngwlad, the first number of this periodical was issued in September, 1858, and only five numbers of it appeared. It was published in Minersville, Pa.

There is an advertisement in the last number for 1856 of Y Drych a'r Gwyliedydd which states that the first number of Y Bardd was to appear on 10 January 1857, under the editorship of Thomas Gwallter Price ('Cuhelyn'), and that its objects included the publication of Welsh poetry and literature, book-reviewing, articles on ancient history, the discussion of art and science, music, literature, and protection of the rights of man, and the advocation of freedom for everyone, without exception. It was intended to follow man's footstep from the coalmine and the smelting-works to the pulpit, the Senate, the President's Seat, and the Throne. Opinions were to be expressed independently and impartially on everything pertaining to the public, immature compositions were not to be published, nor uninteresting correspondence. References to the personal characters of friends or enemies which would give offence were to be avoided. The aim of the paper was to be to foster love, peace and patriotism, to cultivate the Welsh mind and thoughts, and to refine the taste of the reader and Welsh writer.

In size this paper was to be the same as Punch or London Journal in order that readers could bind it. The price was to be two dollars per annum, and each issue was to consist of 16 pages, four of which were to be in English. Among the projected Euoropean Welsh correspondents were Eben Fardd, Brutus, Ioan Emlyn, Thomas Stephens of Merthyr, John Jones ('Talhaiarn'), Cynddelw, Hugh Cadvan, Ieuan ap Gruffydd of London, Llawdden, Dewi Wyn o Essyllt, Islwyn, Aneurin Fardd, Gwilym Mai, Yr Hen Frychan, Nathan Dyfed, William Roberts ('Nefydd'), Eiddyl Ifor and Gwilym Teilo. The life and poetical works of Dafydd ap Gwilym, the famous Welsh poet, were to appear weekly within its columns.

Y Bardd was owned by a company of shareholders who were advancing 2000 dollars in 25 dollar shares to start the venture. A free share would be given to anyone who would succeed in obtaining 50 subscribers. News and correspondence were to be sent to Thomas Gwallter Price ('Cuhelyn'), Bardd Office, New York, and payments to John Phillips, 51 Atlantic Street, Brooklyn City, NY. The motto of the paper was 'Bod heb ddim yw bod heb Dduw'. The 16 page issues that appeared were all in Welsh, and not bilingual as originally intended.

 

#Y Beread. 1842-1843 [Rhif 1-23, 25].

A Welsh Baptist fortnightly magazine of 16 pages, octavo size. According to a letter by 'Ab Morydd' in the Ashby Collection at the Library of the University College of North Wales, Bangor, the first number appeared in January, 1842. The Rev D Phillips, New York, was the editor. Harvard University is fortunate in having in its possession well over a half of all issues of this rare and short-lived publication.

 

#Blodau'r Oes a'r Ysgol. 1872-1875. [1872 and 1873 complete. 1874 --- Jan, April, 1875 --- Jan to Aug].

A small sized magazine for Welsh children in America, similar to Trysorfa' Plant, Dysgedydd y Plant, Y Winllan etc in Wales, first issued by William ap Madoc and T Solomon Griffiths, Utica, and printed by T Griffiths, Utica. Soon afterwards it was bought by the Rev M A Ellis and the Rev T C Edwards, D.D ('Cynonfardd')

 

Y Brython.

I have absolutely failed to get any details of this publication except that it was short-lived, and that I found it named in an American Welsh Booklist.

 

#The Cambrian. 1880-1919. [1880-1919].

An excellent periodical published in English for Welsh Americans which was first issued in the year 1880 by the Rev D J Jones. It began as a bi-monthly, and later appeared as a monthly, and then as a fortnightly journal. It was published and printed in Cicinnati until it was bought in 1886 by the Rev Edward C Evans, MA, Remsen, Oneida Co, New York, and printed by T J Griffiths, Utica. This publication is a mine of information on the history of Welshmen in the USA.

I have in my possession almost all of its issues. There are many volumes of it in the library of the University College of North Wales, Bangor. Harvard University Library in 1931 lacked the first eight volumes as well as the 23rd, 26th, 28th and all after the year 1915.

 

#Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd. 1840-1901. [Cyf 1, 3-6, 8, 10-11, 15, 17-24, 29, 31-38, 40-42, 44, 49, 52-61; and other parts].

An excellent monthly periodical for the use of Welsh Congregationalists of the USA. It was started by the eminent Welshman, the Rev R Everett, DD, Steuben, in 1840, who was assisted by his son, Lewis Everett. The Rev Robert Evans ('Trogwy') edited the poetical columns.

The file of this periodical contains scores of articles on the history of Welsh Americans from the earliest period down to the end of the nineteenth century, and abounds with material on the Welsh Settlements in every part of the vast country. Dewi Emlyn became its editor, and his biographical articles on Welsh preachers of America from 1660 to about 1770 are most valuable. Others who became its editors were the Reverends J P Williams, T C Edwards, DD ('Cynonfardd'), and E Davies, Waterville.

This periodical is most useful to all who seek the history of the Independents and Congregationalist in the USA. As a result of the gift of Dr Everett, the file of the Cenhadwr Americanaidd is more nearly complete than that of any other Welsh periodical in Harvard University. The issues still wanted in 1931 were 1887-8, 1891-2, and 1896, in their entirety, and some numbers from most of the other years from 1882 to 1900.

 

#Colomen Columbia. 1883-1893?. [1891-Rhag 24].

A newspaper published in Emporia, Kansas. In 1893 it was issued under the title of Y Columbia. This organ was of great service to the American Eisteddfodau. At the time of the Chicago World fair it was printed in that city and was in great demand during the period of that event. Soon afterwards it was combined with Y Drych.

 

Y Cor-Drysor.

A monthly periodical for the use of Welsh American musicians.

 

#Cyfaill and Cyfaill o'r Hen Wlad. 1838-1933. [Cyf 1-6, 8-11, 20-83, 85-88. 1926-1933; and other parts].

A monthly periodical, the first number of which appeared in January, 1838. It has played a great part in the life of the Welsh in America. Its founder was the Rev William Rowlands, pastor the Calvinistic Methodist Church in New York City. He intended his paper to serve all denominations among the Welsh, but following the publication of Y Cenhadwr in 1840 in the interests of the Congregationalists, and four years later the Seren Orllewinol for the Baptists, the Cyfaill soon became the organ of the Calvinistic Methodists, and was mainly so after the year 1869.

It is an invaluable source for the history of that denomination in America. Harvard University, in 1931, had complete files of volumes 1-4, 23, 24, 26, 30-33, 37, 41, 48, 72 and 74, and many other volumes lack only one or two numbers each.

The University College of North Wales, Bangor, has an almost complete set.

Even the covers of this publication, like those of the Cenhadwr, are an immense quarry of information for researchers of history, as they contain much detail bearing on the romantic story of the Welsh in the USA, and their way of life.

 

Cyfaill yr Aelwyd.

A short-lived newspaper. I have failed to obtain its history.

 

#Y Cylchgrawn Cenedlaethol. 1853-1856 (or 1857). [Cyf. I, Rhif 1-4, 6; Cyf II, Rhif 2-6; Cyf III; Cyf IV, Rhif 3].

T M Jones ('Gwenallt'), in his book, Llenyddiaeth fy Ngwlad, states that the first number was issued in July, 1853, but according to the list in Y Drych in 1890, it appeared in the previous year. The editor and publisher was Mr John M Jones, of New York City. It was a magazine of strong Welsh national sentiment. Most of its contents were borrowed in part from Y Traethodydd of Denbigh, North Wales. Harvard University has Volume III complete, and many numbers of other volumes.

 

#Cymro America. 1832. [Rhif 1-5, 7-12].

This newspaper was the first Welsh periodical published in the USA. It was published by J A Williams ('Ioan Glan Towy'), of New York City. The full title reads Cymro America, sef Cyfwrng puthegnosol [sic] o Wybodaeth Fuddiol, Mewn Hanesiaeth, Athroniaeth, Celfyddyd, Crefydd, Dysg & /Y gwir yn erbyn y byd. Truth against the World.

It had as one section, a page of English bearing the title The American Cambrian. A Semi-Monthly Journal of Useful Knowledge Devoted Principally to Welsh Literature. The first number is marked 'Rhif I. Caerefrog Newydd, Ionawr 1. 1832.Cyf I'.

This newspaper was published by its owners at No 88, Division St, New York. After a few months of publication it was suspended during the cholera epidemic, and no copies are known to exist in the USA. Fortunately the National Library of Wales contains all the numbers up to No 12 (wrongly dated May 15 1832, which should read June 15), except No 6.

The first number is notable for a valuable article on the history of newspapers in Wales, and there are in the various issues many interesting obituary notices of Welshmen in the USA. The first number also contains poems by David Thomas and Gwilym ab Ioan, and in the other numbers are notes on Welshmen in New York, columns on Goronwy Owen (the eminent Welsh poet who died in Williamsburg, Virginia), and on the Madogwys.

In the eighth number, dated 1 May 1832, there is an advertisement : 'wanting Welsh slate makers in Columbia, New Jersey', which is an interesting sidelight on the fact that at the time of publication of this journal there was a heavy flow of emigrants from Wales to the USA.

Cymro America was sold for two dollars pa. New York trade was in confusion at the time on account of a plague of cholera, of which hundreds of people died, amongst them were many Welshmen.

 

#Y Cymro Americaidd. 1855-1890. [Cyf I, Rhif 1, 3, 8, 10, 11, 25. Cyf VI, Rhif 1, 3, 21.].

A weekly newspaper, first published in May, 1855, which was printed and edited by J M Jones, of New York. In the earlier issues there is to be found an English column.

Several of the leading Welsh American writers contributed articles. These included Benjamin F Lewis, who was the author of Welsh books published in USA to the year 1856, 'Eryr Glan Taf', 'Eos Glan Twrch', 'Iorthyn Gwynedd' (the author of History of the Welsh Americans) and 'Eryl Meirion'. In the Cyfaill, 1855, page 472, it was announced that the eminent Chartist, John Frost, of Newport, Mon, had agreed to take charge of the English section of the Cymro Americaidd, and henceforth 'Eryl Meirion' was to take charge of the Welsh section. It was stated that both were to commence their work as editors on the issue for December 1855.

The title of the first number is as follows; Y Cymro Americaidd. Fy Nghrefydd, Fy Rhyddid, Fy Nghenedl, am Iaith. Rhif I. Efrog Newydd. Mai 5, 1855. Cyf I.

The title of the English part is The Cambro-American. In size this journal was similar to the Cymro of Liverpool. Soon the English section disappears, and this was obviously the result of John Frost's departure from the country.

No 1 of the sixth volume, dated 7 January 1860, is in the National Library of Wales.

In size it is smaller than the previous issues, but is of more artistic appearance. There were 16 pages, and John M Jones, of New York, was still the proprietor and editor.

 

#Y Detholydd. 1850-1852. [1850-1. Cyf 1-11].

A periodical published to advocate the freedom of the slaves in the USA., and edited by the Rev R Everett, DD. It was sold for one dollar a year.

I have a few copies in my possession, and Harvard University Library has a file which is nearly complete.

 

Y Detholydd Cerddoral. 1867-8.

A monthly musical periodical for Welsh Americans, printed in Utica by S E Roberts, and edited by John Owen ('Glan Marchlyn'), a native of the parish of Llanddeiniolen, Caernarvonshire.

 

#The Druid. 1903-. [July,7, 1910, to 1931, wanting only July 25, Aug 1, and Sept 5, 1912, Jan 30 and May 22, 1913, May 1, 1918, and May 1, 1919. Also in NLW are May 9 and July 25, 1903].

An American-Welsh weekly newspaper published in English in Utica. In content and principles it closely resembled Y Drych Americanaidd. The late R H Davies ('Gomerian') was its editor for many years. From 1914 to 1918 it was called The Welsh American.

 

#Y Drych Americanaidd. 1851--- to date. [Complete for 1851, 1889, 1891-2, 1894-1903, 1909-1917, 1919 to date. Numerous other parts.]

No one at the date of the first issue of this popular Welsh American weekly paper could foresee its long and successful career, and all too few of its early issues were saved. This journal is invaluable for the history of the Welsh in America. Its first editor was John W Jones, a native of Llanaelhaiarn, Caernarvonshire.

A few years ago the Drych had to be published in English and Welsh and for some time the major portion has been in English. The size was also reduced to half, and it now appears monthly instead of weekly.

I have in my possession a file from 1901 to date, but several numbers are lacking in some years.

 

#Y Dyngarwr. 1843- 1844. [Cyf. I, Rhif I, 2-4, 6-8, 10-12].

A monthly periodical which advocated the freedom of the slaves in the USA, and other philanthropical aims, edited and published by the Rev R Everett, DD, of Steuben, a well known advocate of Sunday Schools. The editor's zeal for negro emancipation led him, in 1843, to give a free copy to every Welsh preacher in the Union, as well as to many other people. Although most of the articles in this journal dealt with the negro question, the readers' attention was also drawn to oppression in Russia, and other places in Asia and Europe, and elsewhere.

 

Yr Eginydd.

According to Y Drych, 31 July 1924, this Welsh periodical was published at Hyde Park, Pa.

 

Yr Eryr. ?1836-

According to a letter written by 'Ab Morydd' from Floyd, NY, 28 June 1836, certain hindrances made it impossible for Yr Eryr to appear at its proper date, but that unless unforeseen circumstances were to occur, Welshmen in Wales could expect to have it by the beginning of 1837.

 

Yr Eryr. ?1879-1880?

A fortnightly periodical published by Ellis Roberts, East Pa, some time around the dates mentioned above.

 

#Y Ford Gron. 1867. [Rhif 1-3].

A monthly periodical, published at Scranton, Pa, for the service of Welsh literature in all its branches. It was edited by Thomas Gwallter Price and William Aubrey Powell, and ran for less than a year.

 

#Y Glorian. 1872-1874? [Cyf I-II, 1872-3 complete. Cyf III, 1874, Ion - Awst.].

A monthly organ published by the Welsh Baptists in the county of Oneida, NY, and printed for the Committee by the 'Negesydd Press', at Youngstown. The editors were the Revs W L Evans, D J Nicholas, and A J Aubrey ('Cynval'), of Youngstown, Ohio. Very interesting historical articles on the beginnings and the growth of the Welsh Baptists in America are contained in its various issues.

 

Y Golygydd. 1856-7 ?

A Welsh monthly periodical published and edited by the Rev John Jones (of Llangollen). The place of publication was Cincinnati, Ohio, and it was sold for one dollar pa. The stir created around John Jones in Wales before his emigration, was not allowed to abate, and severe criticism was poured upon him from Welsh settlements in all parts of the United States. William Rowland, the editor of Y Drych, was scathing in his remarks, and another writer called the fruits of his pen a hodge-podge. John Jones's judgement may not have been safe to follow, but nevertheless he had a natural gift for writing which was far above that of most of his contemporaries. There was more originality in this journal than in most of the Welsh periodicals of the time. Each issue of Y Golygydd had fifty pages, containing over thirty articles and some poetry.

 

Y Gwron Democrataidd. 1856-57.

A newspaper published in New York as an organ of the Welsh American Democrats. It caused a great stir in the Welsh press in the United States when it first appeared, and an interesting controversy was carried on between it and Y Drych in their respective October issues in 1856. It seems that Y Gwron Democrataidd had accused Y Drych of upholding slavery.

Y Gwron was published at 138 Nassau St, New York. Its founders were J M Jones, Thomas Gwallter Price ('Cuhelyn'), and Dr J Henry Puleston, and its owner and editor was Thomas Jones, 6, Wall St, New York, the author of The History of New York during the Revolutionary War (2 volumes), 1879.

Y Gwron Democrataidd was opposed to Fremont, and enthusiastically in favour of Buchanan, in the keen election which they contested. This journal lasted only for a few months.

 

Y Gwyliedydd. C 1843-44.

A monthly organ of the Welsh Baptists, edited by the Rev D E Bowen, Carbondale, Pa. In Y Seren Orllewinol, Vol I, No 1, p 10, the editor thanked Bowen for his zeal in publishing Y Gwyliedydd, and his kindness in giving it up in favour of Y Seren.

 

Y Gwyliedydd Americanaidd. 1854-55.

A Welsh newspaper which first appeared at the beginning of 1854, under the editorship of the Rev Robert Littler, South Trenton, who was followed as editor by the Rev Morgan A Ellis, of Utica, New York. It was printed by E E Roberts, Utica, and sold for one dollar pa. J E Jones and others were the publishers. In 1885 this journal was combined with Y Drych, which consequently, for a time, bore the title Y Drych a'r Gwyliedydd.

 

Haul Gomer. 1848.

A fortnightly newspaper sold for one dollar pa, published and edited by Evan E Roberts, 'Ieuan o Geredigion', at Utica, New York. It first appeared in January, 1848, and lasted for nine months before being given up on account of failure to find printers who would continue to produce it. The poetical column was edited by 'Eos Glan Twrch'.

 

Haul Gorllewinol. 1852 -

A fortnightly newspaper, published in Milwaukee, under the editorship of Robert Emrys Jones, Superintendent of Schools in Waushara, Winsconsin, and sold for a dollar a year.

 

#Y Lamp. 1897-1903? [1898-1902 complete. Also all issues for 1897 except Gorff. And Awst, and for 1903 except Tachwedd].

A small monthly publication for the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists for the use of their Sunday Schools in the state of Wisconsin, and edited by the Rev D Davies, DD, of Oshkosh.

 

Llais y Gan. 1883.

A periodical which lasted less than a year.

 

Y Negesydd. 1868-1869.

According to the list of periodicals which appeared in Y Drych this periodical was published during the years mentioned above, but T M Jones ('Gwenallt') states that it was first published in 1871 by R T Daniels, Pittsburg, Pa, who also edited it.

 

Y Pwnsh Cymreig. 1876-1878.

A satiric paper on the same lines as the English Punch and the Liverpool published Y Punch Cymraeg. I have seen some of the issues, but the dates and the name of the publishers were broken away. According to Y Drych, 31 July 1924, p 8, this journal was published at Hyde Park, Pa.

 

Seren Oneida. 1844, 1845-1849?

'Ab Morys', of Floyd, Oneida, in a letter, to his father in Anglesey, dated 16 december 1845, stated that the copy of Seren Oneida which his father had received in the previous year had been printed by a Welshman, or Welshmen, who showed enthusiasm for political matters, and who distributed copies among fellow Welshmen. A subsequent number was also printed and distributed in the same way, but from July, 1845, Seren Onedia was regularly issued for 50 cents pa. It became a very good periodical, outspoken in its comments on political preachers, but at the same time a widely acceptable home and foreign magazine. 'Ab Morydd', who was a descendant of Lewis Morris, of Anglesey, sent poems to it, including a series of englynion addressed to the journal itself. There is no doubt that issues of Seren Oneida were published during the first half of 1844, for the editor of Y Cyfaill states that he received two numbers.

 

#Y Seren Orllewinol. 184401867. [Cyf 1-4, 6-7, 16, 21, 23 complete, and other parts.]

A monthly organ of the Welsh Baptists in the USA, edited by the Rev W T Phillips, Utica, and later by the Rev John P Harries, ('Ieuan Ddu'), of Minersville, Pa. Each number contained 24 octavo pages, and the price was three dollars a year. The first number, issued in July, 1844, was printed in Seneca Street, Utica, by Evan E Roberts, but the second volume was printed at the Miners' Journal office, Pottsville, by R Bannar.

I once had the first four volumes complete, and can testify that the pages of this journal are a mine of information, particularly on emigration from Wales to the USA from 1790 to 1847. Harvard University Library, in 1931, had volumes 6, 7, 8, and 12 complete, and almost complete sets of other volumes, down to the last, which appeared in 1867.

 

#Y Traethodydd yn America. 1857-1861. [1857-1860].

It was published and owned by the Rev William Roberts, DD, a CM minister of New York, and printed by Richards and Jones of that city. It reprinted the most important articles in the original Y Traethodydd, which was published in Wales, and also contained supplementary articles on Welsh-American poets and other writers. It was a thick volume, but did not outlast its fourth year of publication. Like its prototype in Wales it was a periodical of high standard, similar to the Scottish Blackwood's Magazine.

 

Tarian y Bobl.

According to the list which appeared in Y Drych, 31 July, 1924, it was a newspaper published in Hyde Park, Pa, but so far I have failed to see a copy, or even to find any other mention of it.

 

Y Trysor. ---1905---.

A monthly periodical for young Welshmen published under the auspices of the General Association of the Calvinistic Methodists, and sold for half a dollar a year. It was printed in Columbus, Ohio, and edited by the Rev John Hammond, MA.

 

#Y Wasg. 1868. [Rhif 1-7].

Published and edited by the Rev Richard Edwards, of Pottsville, for distribution among the Welsh Baptists of the USA. It did not last twelve months.

 

#Y Wasg. 1871-1890. [11 Mawrth 1876; 5 Gorff 1884].

A weekly newspaper published at Pittsburg, and owned by R T Daniels, of that town, who also edited it for a period. Its price was two dollars a year. It was a very good Welsh newspaper, and full of valuable information for researchers into the history of Welshmen in the USA during the last century. In 1890 it was combined with Y Drych.

 

The Dawn (Y Wawr). ---1876-1890---

A periodical intended for the Welsh Baptists of the USA, published and edited by Owen Griffith, ('Giraldus'). Its contents are all in English but are entirely devoted to the activities of Welsh people. The articles are parallel to those published in Y Wawr Americanaidd. This publication is an useful mine of information on the religious activities of Welsh Americans.

 

#Y Wawr [Americanaidd]. 1876-1896?[Cyf 1-5, 7-8, 11-12, 14-15, 17-20 complete, and many other parts.]

A monthly periodical edited and published by Owen Griffith ('Giraldus'), a native of Garn Dolbenmaen, Caernarvonshire, for the use of the Welsh Baptists in America. It was an organ of very high standard, contained 32 pages to a number, and cost one and a half dollars a year. There is an almost complete file in my possession. In 1931, Harvard University Library had only the first three volumes on their shelves.

 

#The Welsh American Magazine. 1929-1936. [Vol 4 complete, and parts of vols 3, 5, 6, 7, and 10].

It was published by Cadwgan Jones, a native of Merionethshire, at 219 Seventh Ave, New York. The first issue appeared in January, 1929, and was sold for 10 cents. It was a large sized quarto publication, nicely printed on good paper, and devoting its pages to the news of the day in and around New York. It contained articles in English and Welsh. It was intended as a monthly, but did not always appear regularly. In 1932, for example, it only appeared four times.

 

#Yr Ymdrechydd (The Endeavour). 1894-1895. [Cyf I, Rhif 6,12]

A monthly organ of the Welsh Christian Endeavour Societies, published by P M Evans and Co, 325 Dearborn Street, Chicago, and edited by the Rev J C Jones, Chicago, and G James Jones, PhD, Oak-Hill, Ohio. The price was 60 cents a year, payable in advance.

 

Yr Ymwelydd. 1877-?. [Cyf 1-27, 35, 55 complete, and many other parts.]

Henry M Edwards, an eminent solicitor in Luzerne Co, Pa, first published this journal about the end of 1871, and was also its editor. It was a monthly periodical, and included among its articles were many on the leading Welsh writers of the USA, such as the Rev Frederick Evans ('Ednyfed'), 'Dewi Glan Twrch', etc.

 

#Yr Ysgol. 1869-1870. [Cyf I. Rhif 1, 2, 4-12.]

It was first published by H J Hughes, of New York, who was also its editor. It was a monthly organ for the use of young people in the Welsh churches, and sold for one dollar a year. It contained pictures in keeping with the taste of the youth of its period. On the death of the editor, it ceased publication, but in 1872 it was combined with Blodau'r Oes under the title Blodau yr Oes a'r Ysgol.

 

Yr Yspiydd. 1871-1872.

A monthly periodical of which I know nothing, except that it ran for two years, and to which I have seen three references.

 

 

Bob Owen

 

---

 

Idwal Lewis, National Library of Wales Journal, Summer 1942, Vol II/3 & 4

Extracted onto the pages of GENUKI with the kind permission of the National Library of Wales

This is a complete extract of this article by Gareth Hicks [3 July  2002].

See also Welsh American Newspapers and Periodicals

 

---

One sign of the vitality of a nation is its ability to maintain a periodical press. That the Welsh people in the United States have achieved this is evident from the list of newspapers and periodicals which follows. There has been no Welsh daily newspaper published in the United States. Probably the Welsh population was too scattered to make this a practical proposition and the Welsh community at any one centre too small to secure a sufficient number of subscribers. There were eleven newspapers devoted to welsh interests. The Druid (Scranton) and The Welshman (Jackson, Ohio) were published in English. Y Drych, the oldest of all Welsh newspapers published in the United States, was first issued in 1851 and is still being published.

The periodicals were mainly devoted to denominational interests and some are known to have had a wide circulation. The English periodicals relating to Welsh affairs, such as The American Celt (Scranton) The Cambrian (Cincinnati), and Cambrian Gleanings (New York), were of a general or literary character. On the other hand, The Day Light (Utica), was a Baptist monthly magazine. Of the Welsh periodicals, the majority were published by the Presbyterians (Calvinistic Methodists) and the Baptists. The earliest of all Welsh American periodicals was Cyfaill o'r Hen Wlad yn America (New York etc), the first number appearing in 1838. It was continued with slightly modified titles until December 1933 and was mainly concerned with the affairs of the Calvinistic Methodists. In fact its secondary title after Vol XXXIII was Cylchgrawn y Methodistaid Calfinaidd yn America. This denomination, or at least the Wisconsin Assembly of the Calvinistic Methodists, also issued a periodical entitled Y Lamp (Oshkosh) specially for young readers.

The Baptist denomination issued a number of periodicals in Welsh, including Y Beread (New York), Y Glorian (Youngstown), Haul Gomer (New York), Y Seren Orllewinol (Pottsville), Y Wasg (Scranton), and Y Wawr (Utica). Some of these had only a very brief existence, but others had fairly long careers. Y Glorian, for example, was issued from 1872 to 1894, and Y Seren Orllewinol from 1844 to 1866.

Apart from the denominational publications the young Welsh readers in the United States had their own periodicals, mostly of a religious flavour such as Blodau yr Oes a'r Ysgol (Utica), Y Lamp (Oshkosh and Utica), Yr Ysgol (New York), and Y Trysor, but their existence was brief.

Literary pursuits, especially poetry, were not neglected. Y Bardd (Minersville), and Y Ford Gron (Scranton), for short periods made some provision for those with literary interests.

Seren Oneida, Cyfaill yr Undeb, and Yr Amserau were published to further the cause of the Democratic Party amongst the Welsh people in the United States but these too survived for only a very short period.

What is important in connection with the following list is that, apart from the immediate purpose of their appearance, the files of the newspapers and periodicals are indispensible to any student making research into the history of the Welsh in the United States.

The number of newspapers in the list is 11, printed at the following places;

• Scranton; 2
• Uitica; 2
• Emporia, Kansas;  1
• New York; 4
• Pittsburg; 1
• Jackson, Ohio; 1

The number of periodicals is 33 and the following list shows (i.e counting their first imprints only) how widely they were distributed;

• Brooklyn, NY; 1
• Chicago; 1
• Cincinnati, Ohio; 2
• East Palestine, Ohio; 1
• Hyde Park, Luzerne Co; 1
• Minersville, Pa; 1
• New York; 8
• Oshkosh, Ohio; 1
• Pittsburg, Pa; 2
• Pottsville, Pa; 1
• Remsen, NY; 2
• Rome, NY; 1
• Scranton, Pa; 3
• Utica, NY; 7
• Youngstown, Ohio; 1

In the following list the periodicals are arranged according to the date of the first issue of each periodical;

• 1834 Cyfaill o'r Hen Wlad yn America
• 1840 Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd
• 1842 Y Beread
• 1843 Y Dyngarwr
• 1844 Y Seren Orllewinol
• 1848 Haul Gomer
• 1850 Y Detholydd
• 1853 Y Cylchgrawn Cenedlaethol
• 1856 Y Golygydd
• 1857 Y Traethodydd yn America
• 1858 Yr Arweinydd
• 1858 Y Bardd
• 1864 Y Pwlpud Cymraeg
• 1867 Y Ford Gron
• 1868 Y Wasg
• 1870 Yr Ysgol
• 1871 Y Negesydd
• 1871 Yr Ymwelydd
• 1872 Blodau yr Oes a'r Ysgol
• 1872 Y Glorian
• 1876 Y Wawr
• 1880 The Cambrian
• 1881 Yr Eryr
• 1881 Y Pregethwr a'r Esboniwr
• 1889 The Daylight
• 1894 Yr Ymdrechydd
• 1897 The American Celt
• 1897 Y Lamp
• 1901 Pwlpud y Bobl
• 1910 The Messenger
• 1914 Cambrian Gleanings
• 1929 Welsh American Magazine
• 1938 The Celtic Digest

In the alphabetically-arranged list which follows the size of the periodicals has been indicated where possible, but as some of the publications are not represented in the National Library of Wales this has not been done in every case. An asterisk indicates those periodicals which are in the National Library.

Periodicals

 

• #The American Celt. A monthly magazine for the Welsh and other Celts in America, edited by John Grifiths. Vol 1 (1897), no 1. Continued as;- The American Kelt. Vol 1 (1897), Nos 2-6
  • Scranton, Pa; No's 1-3 published by F H Gerlock & Co., 4-6 by John Griffith. 8vo

• #Yr Arweinydd. A gyhoeddir ar y 10 fed a'r 25 ain o bob mis, dan olygiad Thos T Evans, Floyd. Cyf III dan olygiad William Hughes, Utica. Cyf 1 (1858).
  • Rome, NY; argraffwyd a chyhoeddwyd gan R R Meredith.  8vo.

• #Y Bardd. Pythefnosolyn llenyddawl. T Gwallter Price, Golygydd. Cyf 1. (1858)
  • Minersville, Sir Schuylkill, Pa. T Gwallter Price, 'Cuhelyn'. 8vo

• #Y Beread; neu, Drysorfa y Bedyddwyr, (misolyn) dan olygiaeth D Phillips. Cyf 1 (1842).
  • Caerefrog Newydd: argraffwyd gan W Osborn. 8vo. Ceased publication, March 1843

• #Blodau yr Oes a'r Ysgol. Cyhoeddiad misol at wasanaeth ieuenctyd Cymreig America. Cyf 1-III cyhoeddedig gan W ap Madoc a T Solomon Griffiths, Utica, NY: Cyf IV cyhoeddedig gan M A Ellis a T C Edwards ('Cynonfardd'). Cyf I (1872).
  • Utica, NY: T J Griffiths. 8vo . Ceased publication, Dec 1875.

• #The Cambrian. A bi-monthly journal devoted to the history, biography, literature and general intelligence of the Welsh people in the United States. Vols I-VI edited by D I Jones; Vold VI-XVIII edited by E C Evans. Vol I (1880-1)
  • Cincinnati, Ohio; D I Jones, 1881-85
  • Utica, NY; T J Griffiths, 1887-1917. large 8vo

• #Cambrian Gleanings. A monthly magazine on Welsh matters for the Welsh people the world over. Edited and published by Henry Blackwell. Vol I (1914). Nos 1-9.
  • New York; Henry Blackwell. 12mo

• #The Celtic Digest. Vol I (1938). No 1.
  • New York; Celtic Society, Columbia University, New York. 8vo

• #Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd. Cyf 1. (1840).
  • Utica, NY: R W Roberts, 1840-2; Remsen, NY: arg. gan J R Everett, 1847-54; R Everett, 1855-74; arg. gan R Everett, 1875; cyh. gan Mrs E Everett, 1876; cyh. gan L Everett, 1877-80; arg. a chyh. gan E Davies, 1882-96; Waterville, NY; E Davies, cyhoeddwr, 1898-1901. large 8vo

• #Cyfaill o'r Hen Wlad yn America: sef, Cylchgrawn o wybodaeth fuddiol i'r Cymry, dan olygiad William Rowlands. Cyf 1 (1838)
  • (continued as) Cyfaill o'r Hen Wlad, neu Cylchgrawn Misol y Methodistiaid Calfinaidd yn America.
  • (continued as) Y Cyfaill: cylchgrawn misol y Presbyteriaid Cymreig Unol Daleithiau America.
    • Caerefrog Newydd: argraffwyd gan Wm Osborn, 1838-40; Utica, NY: arg. gan E E Roberts, 1841-2; Caerefrog Newydd: cyhoeddwyd gan Baker, Godwin & Co, 1848-53; Rome : argraffwyd gan R R Meredith, 1854-57; Utica, NY: argraffwyd gan D C Davies & Griffiths, 1858-60; argraffwyd gan T J Griffiths, 1861-80, 1991-1901; argraffwyd gan Y Cymric Printing Co, 1902-10; argraffwyd gan Evan W Jones & Co, 1911-13; argraffwyd gan Utica Printing Co Inc, 1914-19. large 8vo   Ceased publication in 1933.

• #Y Cylchgrawn Cenedlaethol. Cyf 1 (1853)
  • Efrog Newydd: cyhoeddwyd yn Swyddfa Y Drych gan J M Jones, 1853. large 8vo

• #The Day Light. A Baptist monthly magazine edited by the Rev Owen Griffith (Giraldus). Vol I (1889). Nos 1-12 all published.
  • Utica: T J Griffiths, printer. 8vo

• #Y Detholydd. (Golygydd: R Everett). Cyf I (1850)
  • Remsen, NY; R Everett, 1850-1. large 8vo

• #Y Dyngarwr.  Golygydd : R Everett. Cyf I (1843)
  • Remsen, NY: arg. gan J R & R Everett, 1843. Incorporated with Cenhadwr Americanaidd. 8vo

• Yr Eryr. (Fortnightly). Vol I (1881).
  • East Palestine: Ellis Roberts. 4to

• #Y Ford Gron. Cylchgrawn llenyddol, dan olygiaeth Thos Gwallter Price ('Cuhelyn') a W Aubrey Powell. Cyf I (1867). Nos 1-3 (? all published)
  • Scranton: argraffwyd yn Swyddfa Y Republican. 8vo

• #Y Glorian. Cylchgrawn misol at wasanaeth eglwysi Bedyddwyr Cymreig America, dan olygiaeth D J Nicholas (Ifor Ebwy), a J Aubrey ('Cynval'). Cyf I (1872).
  • Youngstown: argraffwyd yn Swyddfa Y Register dros y Pwyllgor. 8vo. Ceased publication, August 1894.

• Y Golygydd. (Cyhoeddiad misol). Golygydd : John Jones ('Llangollen'). Cyf I (1856).
  • Cincinnati: John Jones

• Haul Gomer. (Published fortnightly and edited by Evan E Roberts ('Ieuan o Garedigion'). Cyf I (1848).
  • Utica, NY: E E Roberts.

• #Y Lamp. Cyhoeddiad misol i ieuenctyd America, yn Gymraeg a Seisoneg......cyh. gan Fethodistiaid Calfinaidd Cymanfa Wisconsin. Cyf I (1897)
  • Oshkosh, Ohio: Cwmni Argraffu Y Globe, 1898-1901; Utica, NY: Publ & pr by T G Griffiths, 1902-3. 8vo

• #The Messenger. A magazine devoted to the interests of the Oakland Welsh Presbyterian Church.  Vol I (1910).
  • Pittsburg: American Printing Co. 8vo

• Y Negesydd. Cyhoeddiad misol dan olygiaeth R T Daniels. Cyf I (1871).
  • Pittsburg: R T Daniels.

• #Y Pregethwr a'r Esboniwr. Cyhoeddiad dau-fisol. Cyhoeddwyd gan Thos R Jones, Randolph, Wis. Cyf I (1881). Ion-Tach.
  • Utica: T J Griffiths, 1881. 8vo

• #Y Pwlpud Cymreig, sef, cyfres o bregethau yn wreiddiol a detholedig. Cyhoeddedig gan T R Jones, Rome, NY. Cyf I (1864).
  • Utica, NY: arg. gan (1) E E Roberts a (2) T J Griffiths. 8vo

• #Pwlpud y Bobl, Tabernacl, Brooklyn. Cyf I (1901).
  • Brooklyn, NY: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Soc, 1909. small folio.

• #Y Seren Orllewinol, neu, Gyfrwng Gwybodaeth i Hil Gomer yn America. (Baptist monthly). Cyh. gan R Edwards. Cyf I (1844).
  • Pottsville, Pa: arg. a chyh. gan R Edwards, 1845-66. 8vo

• # Y Traethodydd yn America, dan olyg. y Parch Wm Roberts, Efrog Newydd.  Cyf I (1857).
  • New York: Richards & Jones, argraffwyr, 1857. 8vo. Ceased publication in 1860.

• #Y Wasg. Cylchgrawn misol at wasanaeth y Bedyddwyr Cymreig a'r Ysgol Sabbathol wedi ei olygu gan A J Morton.  Cyf I (1868). Ion-Medi. (1876) Ebr- (1896) Awst.
  • Scranton: Crandall a'i Gyf. 8vo; Utica: T Griffiths.

• #Y Wawr, sef, cylchgrawn misol y Bedyddwyr Cymgreig yn America, dan olygiaeth Own Griffith ('Giraldus'), Utica. Cyf I (1876-7)
  • Utica: NY: T J Griffiths. 8vo

• #Welsh American Magazine. Vol I (1929).
  • New York City: Welsh American Publ. Co, 1929. 8vo

• #Yr Ymdrechydd (The Endeavorer). Devoted to the interest of Welsh Christian Endeavor Societies, etc.  Cyf I (1894-5).
  • Chicago: Endeavor Office, 1895. 8vo

• Yr Ymwelydd. Cyhoeddiad misol. Golygydd: Henry M Edwards. Cyf I (1871).
  • Hyde Park, Luzerne Co, Pa: Henry M Edwards.

• #Yr Ysgol. Cyhoeddiad misol i blant ac ieuenctyd Cymry America, dan olygiaeth H J Hughes. Cyf I (1879).
  • New York: H J Hughes.

Newspapers

 

• Baner America. Cyhoeddiad wythnosol. Golygwyr: M A Ellis a Fred Evans, a David Parry. Cyf I (1867)
  • Scranton: Thos B Morris

• #Columbia. Newyddiadur wythnosol at wasanaeth y Cymry yn America.  Cyf I (1888)
  • Emporia, Kansas: Columbia Publishing Co. Incorporated with Y Drych.

• #Cyfaill yr Undeb. The Friend of the Union. Cyf I (1860)
  • Utica: 1860. 4to

• Cymro America. Cyf I (1832). Dan olygiaeth J A Williams.
  • New York: 1832

• #Y Cymro Americaidd.  (In Welsh & English, the second title being The Cambro American).
  • Efrog-Newydd: 1855-1860. folio

• #The Druid. Vol I (1907).
  • (continued as) The Welsh American.
  • (continued as) The Druid.
    • Scranton, Pa : 1907. folio

• #Y Drych. Newyddiadur cenedlaethol at wasanaeth cenedl y Cymry yn y Talaethau Unedig. Cyf I (1851)
  • Efrog-Newydd & Utica, NY: 1867.
    • Incorporating Y Wasg in 1890 and Columbia in 1894. folio

• #Y Drych a'r Gwyliedydd. Cyf I (1855).
  • Efrog-Newydd : 1855-6. folio

• #Gwyliedydd Americanaidd. Cyf I (1854)
  • Utica, NY: 1854. folio

• #Y Wasg. 1876, Mawrth 11.
  • Pittsburg: 1876. folio

• #The Welshman. The organ of the Welsh in America. Edited by D W Williams. Vol I (1895)
  • Jackson, Ohio: Welshman Publishing Co

 

Idwal Lewis

 

---

 

[From Illustrated London News, Saturday July 6th 1850]

We now proceed to detail the process of emigration, beginning with the arrival of the emigrants at Liverpool, the great port of intercourse with the United States. The first care of the emigrants, if their passage have not previously been paid for them by their kind friends in New York, is to pay their passage-money, and make the best bargain they can with the passenger-brokers. The competition in this trade is very great, and fares, accordingly, vary from day to day, and even from hour to hour, being sometimes as high as 5 Pounds per passenger in the steerage, and sometimes as low as 3 Pounds 10 Shillings.

The walls of Liverpool are thoroughly placarded with the notices of the days of sailing of the various packets, for which many firms act as passenger-brokers, and set forth in large letters the excellent qualities of such well known and favourite packets as the YORKSHIRE, the NEW WORLD, the ISAAC WEBB, the WEST POINT, the CONSTITUTION, the ISAAC WRIGHT, the LONDON, the STAR OF THE WEST, the QUEEN OF THE WEST, and scores of others. The average number of steerage passengers that can be accommodated in these fine vessels (which are mostly owned in New York) is 400; but some of them, such as the ISAAC WEBB, can comfortably make room for double that number. After the emigrant has chosen the ship by which he will sail, and perhaps run the gauntlet through scores of designing and unscrupulous 'man-catchers'-a class of persons who get a commission from the passenger-brokers for each emigrant that they bring to the office-his next duty is to present himself at the-

Medical Inspector's Office

By the terms of the New Passenger Act, 12 and 13 Vict., c.33, no passenger-ship is allowed to proceed until a medical practitioner appointed by the emigration office of the port shall have inspected the medicine-chest and passengers, and certified that the medicines etc are sufficient, and that the passengers are free from contagious disease. The master, owner, or charterer of the ship is bound to pay the medical inspector the sum of 1 Pound sterling for every 100 persons thus inspected. When the emigrant and his family have undergone this process, their passage-ticket is stamped, and they have nothing further to do, until they go on board, but to make their own private arrangements and provide themselves with outfits, or with such articles of luxury or necessity as they may desire over and above the ships allowance.

All persons who may be discovered to be affected with any infectious disease, either at the original port of embarkation or at any port in the United Kingdom into which the vessel may subsequently put, are to be re-landed, with those members of their families, if any, who may be dependent upon them, or unwilling to be separated from them, together with their clothes and effects. Passengers re-landed are entitled to receive back their passage-money, which may be recovered from the party to whom it was paid, or from the owner, charterer, or master of the ship, by summary process, before two or more justices of the peace.

The Embarkation

The scene in the Waterloo dock, at Liverpool, where all the American sailing packets are stationed, is at all times a very busy one; but, on the morning of the departure of a large ship, with a full complement of emigrants, it is peculiarly exciting and interesting. The passengers have undergone inspection, and many of them have taken up their quarters on board for twenty-four hours previously, as they are entitled to do by terms of the act of Parliament. Many of them bring, in addition to the boxes and trunks containing their worldly wealth, considerable quantities of provisions, although it must be confessed that the scale fixed by the Government to be supplied to them by the ship is sufficiently liberal to keep in health and comfort all among them, who, in their ordinary course of life, were not accustomed to animal food. The following is the scale, in addition to any provisions which the passengers may themselves bring:-

 2 and 1/2 lb of Bread or biscuit (not inferior to navy biscuit) 1 lb Wheaten Flour 5 lb Oatmeal 2 lb Rice 2 oz Tea 1/2 lb Sugar 1/2 lb Molasses 

Per week. To be issued in advance, and not less often than twice a week. Also:- 3 quarts of Water daily.

5 lb of good Potatoes may, at the option of the master, be substituted for 1lb of oatmeal or rice; and in ships sailing from Liverpool, or from Irish of Scottish ports, oatmeal may be substituted, in equal quantities, for the whole or any part of the issues of rice.

Vessels carrying as many as 100 passengers must be provided with a seafaring person to act as passenger's cook, and also with a proper cooking apparatus. A convenient place must be set apart on deck for cooking, and a proper supply of fuel shipped for the voyage. The whole to be subject to the approval of the emigration officer.

Dancing Between Decks

The scenes that occur between decks on the day before the sailing of a packet, and during the time that a ship may be unavoidably detained in dock, are not generally of a character to impress the spectator with the idea of any great or overwhelming grief on the part of the emigrants at leaving the old country. On the contrary, all is bustle, excitement, and merriment. The scene of a party of emigrants, male and female, dancing between decks-to the music of the violin-played for their amusement, by some of their fellow-passengers, is not a rare one. Sometimes a passenger is skilful upon the Irish Bagpipe, and his services are freely asked and freely given for the gratification of his countrymen and countrywomen-not simply while in dock, but, according to the reports of captains and others, during the whole voyage. Any person who can play the Violin-the Flute-the Pipe, or any other instrument, becomes of interest and importance to the passengers, and is kept in constant requisition for their amusement. The youngest child and the oldest man in the ship are alike interested; and grey headed men and women are frequently to be seen dancing with as much delight, if not with as much vigour, as if Seventeen, not Seventy, was the number that would most nearly express their age.

But, as the hour of departure draws nigh, the music ceases. Too many fresh arrivals take place every moment, and the docks become too much encumbered with luggage to admit of the amusement. Although notice of the day and hour of departure may have been given for weeks previously, there are a large class of persons (-not confined to emigrants it may be observed 'en passant'-) who never will be punctual, and who seem to make it a point of duty and conscience to postpone everything to the last moment, and to enjoy the excitement of being within a few minutes or even moments of losing their passage. These may be seen arriving in flushed and panting detachments, driving donkey-carts laden with their worldly stores, to the gangway, at the ship's side. It often happens that the gangway has been removed before their arrival, in which case their only chance is to wait until the ship reaches the dock-gate, when their boxes, bails, barrels and bundles are actually pitched into the ship, and men, and women, and children have to scramble up among the rigging, amid a screaming, a swearing, and a shouting perfectly alarming to listen to. Not infrequently a box or barrel falls overboard, and sometimes a man or a woman suffers the same fate, but is speedily re-saved by men in a small boat, that follows in the wake of this ship for the purpose, until she have finally cleared the dock.

The Departure

There are usually a large number of spectators at the dock-gates to witness the final departure of the noble ship, with its large freight of human beings. It is an interesting and impressive sight; and the most callous and indifferent can scarcely fail, at such a moment, to form cordial wishes for the pleasant voyage and safe arrival of the emigrants, and for their future prosperity in their new home. As the ship is towed out, hats are raised, handkerchiefs are waved, and a loud and long-continued shout of farewell is raised from the shore, and cordially responded to from the ship. It is then, if at any time, that the eyes of the emigrants begin to moisten with regret at the thought that they are looking for the last time at the old country-that country which, although, in all probability, associated principally with the remembrance of sorrow and suffering, of semi-starvation, and a constant battle for the merest crust necessary to support existence is, nevertheless, the country of their fathers, the country of their childhood, and consecrated to their hearts by many a token. The last look, if known to be the last, is always sorrowful, and refuses, in most instances, to see the wrong and the suffering, the error and the misery, which may have impelled the one who takes it, to venture from the old into the new, from the tried to the untried path, and to recommence existence under new auspices, and with new and totally different prospects.

'Farewell, England! Blessings on thee- Stern and niggard as thou art. Harshly, mother, thou hast used me, And my bread thou hast refused me: But 'tis agony to part:

-is doubtless the feeling uppermost in the mind of many thousands of the poorer class of English emigrants at the moment when the cheers of the spectators and of their friends on shore proclaim the instant of departure from the land of their birth. Even in the case of the Irish emigrants, a similar feeling-though possibly less intense-can scarcely fail to be excited. Little time, however, is left to them to indulge in these reflections. The ship is generally towed by a steam-tug five or ten miles down the Mersey; and during the time occupied in traversing these ten miles, two very important ceremonies have to be gone through: the first is 'the Search for Stowaways;' and the second is the ' Roll-call of the Passengers'.

The Search for Stowaways

The practice of 'stowing away', or hiding about a vessel until after the passage tickets have been collected, in order to procure, by this fraudulent means, a free passage across the Atlantic, is stated to be very common to ships leaving London and Liverpool for the United States. The 'Stowaways' are sometimes brought onboard concealed in trunks or chests, with air-holes to prevent suffocation. Sometimes they are brought in barrels, packed up to their chins in salt, or biscuits, or other provisions, to the imminent hazard of their lives. At other times they take the chance of hiding about the ship, under the bedding, amid the confused luggage of other passengers, and in all sorts of dark nooks and corners between decks. Hence, it becoming expedient to make a thorough search of the vessel before the steam-tug has left her, in order that, if any of these unhappy intruders be discovered, they may be taken back to port and brought before the Magistrate, to be punished for the fraud which they have attempted.

As many as a dozen stowaways have sometimes been discovered in one ship; and cases have occurred, though not frequently, of men, women, and young boys, having been taken dead out of the barrels or chests in which they had concealed themselves, to avoid payment of 3 Pounds or 4 Pounds passage money. When the ship is fairly out, the search for stowaways is ordered. All the passengers are summoned upon the Quarter-Deck, and there detained until the search has been completed in every part of the ship. The Captain, Mate, or other Officer, attended by the clerk of the passenger broker, and as many of the crew as may be necessary for the purpose, then proceed below, bearing masked lanterns or candles, and armed with long poles, hammers, chisels, etc, that they may break open suspicious looking chests and barrels. Occasionally, the pole is said to be tipped with a sharp nail, to aid the process of discovery in dark nooks; and sometimes the man armed with the hammer hammers the bed-clothes, in order that if there be a concealed head underneath, the owner may make the fact known, and thus avoid a repetition of the blows. If a stowaway be concealed in a barrel, it is to be presumed that he has been placed with his head uppermost, and the searchers, upon this hint, whenever they have a suspicion, deliberately proceed to turn the barrel bottom upwards,- a process which never fails, after a short time, if the suspicion be well founded, to elicit an unmistakable cry for release. Although this search is invariably made with the upmost care, it is not always effectual in discovering the delinquent; and instances have occurred in which no less than eight, ten, or even a larger number, including both men and women, have made their appearance after the vessel has been two or three days at sea. Some captains used to make it a rule to behave with great severity, if not cruelty, to these unfortunates; and instances are related of their having caused them to be tarred and feathered, or to walk the decks through the cold nights with nothing on but their shirts: but this inhumanity does not now appear to be practised. As there is a great deal of dirty work that must be done on ship-board, the stowaways are pressed into that service, and compelled to make themselves useful, if not agreeable. They are forced, in fact, to work their passage out, and the most unpleasant jobs are imposed upon them. After the search for them in every corner of the ship, the next ceremony is commenced.

Roll-Call

This is one that occupies a considerable space of time, especially in a large ship, containing seven or eight hundred emigrants. The passengers-those in the state cabin excepted-being all assembled upon the Quarter-Deck, the clerk of the passenger-broker, accompanied by the ship's surgeon, and aided in the preservation of order by the crew, proceeds to call for the tickets. The clerk, or man in authority, usually stands upon the rail, or other convenient elevation on the Quarter-Deck, so that he may be enabled to see over the heads of the whole assemblage-usually a very motley one-comprising people of all ages, from seven weeks to seventy years. A double purpose is answered by the roll-call-the verification of the passenger-list, and the medical inspection of the emigrants, on behalf of the captain and owners. The previous inspection on the part of the governor was to prevent the risk of contagious disease on board. The inspection on the part of the owners is for a different object.

The ship has to pay a poll-tax of one dollar and a half per passenger to the State of New York; and if any of the poor emigrants are helpless and deformed persons, the owners are fined in the sum of seventy five dollars for bringing them, and are compelled to enter in a bond to the city of New York that they will not become a burden on the public. To obviate this risk, the medical officer of the ship passes them under inspection; and if there be a pauper cripple among the number who cannot give security that he has friends in America to take charge of him of arrival, and provide for him afterwards, the captain may refuse to take him.

The business of verification and inspection generally occupies from two to four hours, according to the number of emigrants on board; and, during its progress, some noteworthy incidents occasionally arise. Sometimes an Irishman, with a wife and eight or ten children, who may have only paid a deposit of his passage-money, attempts to evade the payment of the balance, by pleading that he has not a farthing left in the world; and trusting that the ship will rather take him out to New York for the sum already paid, than incur the trouble of putting him on shore again with his family. Sometimes a woman may have included in her passage-ticket an infant at the breast, and may be seen, when her name is called, panting under the weight of a boy of eight or nine years of age, whom she is holding to her bosom as if he were really a suckling. Sometimes a youth of nineteen, strong and big as a man, has been entered as under twelve, in order to get across to America for half the fare of an adult; and sometimes a whole f mily are without any tickets, and have come on board in the hope that, amid the confusion which they imagine will be attendant upon the congregation of so many hundred people on a ship, they may manage to evade notice, and slip down unperceived amid those whose documents are found 'en regle'.

These cases, as they occur, are placed on one side; and those who have duly paid their passage money, and produced their tickets, are allowed to pass down and take possession of their berths. Those who have not paid, either in whole or in part, and are either unable or unwilling to satisfy the claim against them, are then transferred on board the tug, with bag and baggage, to be reconveyed to port. Those who have money, and have attempted a fraud, generally contrive, after many lamentations about their extreme poverty, to produce the necessary funds, which, in the shape of golden sovereigns are not unfrequently found to be safely stitched amid the rags of petticoats, coats, and unmentionable garments. Those who have really no money, and who cannot manage to appeal to the sympathy of the crowd for a small subscription to help them to the New World, must resign themselves to their fate, and remain in the poverty from which they seek to free themselves, until they are able to raise the small sum necessary for their emancipation. The stowaways, if any, are ordered to be taken before the magistrates; and all strangers and interlopers being safely placed in the tug, the emigrant ship is left to herself. May all prosperity attend her living freight!

 

'Far away-oh far away- We seek a world o'er the ocean spray! We seek a land across the sea, Where bread is plenty and men are free, The sails are set, the breezes swell- England, our country, farewell! farewell!

General

• PRO Leaflets:
  • Immigrants: National Archives research guide
  • Grants of British Nationality
  • Emigrants: General
• Passenger Lists on the Internet - a comprehensive list of resources provided by Ron Prost. (Archived copy.)
• There is a contemporary account of the procedure of Emigration from the port of Liverpool to the New World and the Colonies from an article printed in the Illustrated London News on Saturday July 6th 1850.
• The Ships List - a mailing list dedicated to the discussion of emigration, immigration, ports of entry and departure, ship descriptions and history, passenger lists and any other related topics. [Subscription instructions] - see also the associated web-site (archived copy) which contains "hundreds of passenger lists to Canada, USA, Australia and even some for South Africa".
• Moving Here - 200 Years of Migration to England - "photographs, maps, objects, documents and audio items recording migration experiences of the past 200 years" (archived copy).
• Black Presence deals with the Asian and Black presence in Britain from Roman times to the present day. (A National Archives Project).

Australasia

• The Government of New South Wales have provided online Assisted Immigrants Indexes covering the period 1839-1896.
• The Public Record Office of Victoria provides a Family History Research Guide and details of their Shipping List Indexes.
• Good British Stock: Child and Youth Migration to Australia (archived copy) - a National Archives of Australia research guide.
• Convict Maids: The forced migration of women to Australia (Cambridge University Press, 1996) is a quantitative analysis of the crimes and work histories of all 6,876 girls and women transported from Britain and Ireland to New South Wales between 1826 and 1840.
• Denise and Peter's Passenger Lists of Emigrant ships to New Zealand.
• Information on Immigration to Australia (1901-39) (archived copy) in the Australian National Archives.
• Convictions - Australian shipping 1788-1968 - "shipping and passenger information for Australia and, to a lesser extent, New Zealand".
• Reference Guide on Migration, from Archives New Zealand, detailing their holdings.
• Australian Family History and Genealogy selected websites - from the National Library of Australia
• Web Sites for Genealogists - an Australian Gateway Site (archived site) - by Cora Web
• British and Irish immigration to New Zealand, 1840-1914 - from the NZ Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
• Immigration Bridge - stories of emigration to Australia.
• Pearls Pad of New Zealand genealogy
• The Community Archive of the New Zealand National Register of Archives and Manuscripts - a searchable central register.

France

• French Refugees in Great Britain in the early 1700s, provided by Elizabeth Burton.

India

• Families in British India Society website - contains numerous links and much useful tutorial material.
• India Office Records (archived copy) at the British Library - "the documentary archives of the administration in London of the pre-1947 government of India".
• Anglo Indians website (archived copy) - claims "to be the most complete international repository and exchange of Anglo-Indian information".
• The British Library's India Office Family History Search facility, of "300,000 births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials in the India Office Records."

North America

• PRO Leaflet: Emigrants to North America After 1776.
• Between 1892 and 1924 more than 22 million people arrived in the United States of America through Ellis Island and the Port of New York. The American Family Immigration History Center have provided a searchable database listing details of these arrivals.
• FamilySearch's copy of The New York Battery Conservancy Castle Garden database of immigrants who arrived in the pre-Ellis Island Castle Garden immigration center between 1830 and 1890.
• Canadian Immigration Records - Guide provided by Library and Archives Canada.
• The Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild and the The Ships List of passenger lists for immigrant ships to America available online.
• Immigrant Servants Database - details regarding over 10,000 American colonists who crossed the Atlantic Ocean as indentured servants (archived copy).
• Marjorie Kohli provides information about 19th century emigration to Canada (archived copy - includes Emigrants Handbooks, ships lists, etc.) and about the emigration of children and young women to Canada from 1833-1939 (archived copy).
• FindMyPast's Passenger Lists covering all ships leaving the UK from 1890-1960.
• Home Children database - "Between 1869 and the early 1930s, over 100,000 children were sent to Canada from Great Britain during the child emigration movement. Members of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa are locating and indexing the names of these Home Children found in passenger lists in the custody of the National Archives of Canada."
• Citizenship and Naturalization Records - "Citizenship and Immigration Canada holds records of naturalization and citizenship from 1854 to the present. The originals of records dated between 1854 and 1917 have been destroyed. However, a card index by name has survived, which provides information compiled at the time of naturalization . . ."
• Transport and migration: Transatlantic fares Index and Influence 1815-1870. (archived copy) by Joh Killick

South Africa

• Paul Tanner-Tremaine's British 1820 Settlers to South Africa genealogy web site.

South America

• British Settlers in Argentina, provided by Jeremy Howat.

See also under Merchant Marine.