Showing 2 results

Archival description
George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820 -- Family.
Print preview View:
Ascending

1 results with digital objects Show results with digital objects

Diary, etc., of John Davies, Ystrad

Diary, etc., of John Davies, Ystrad

  • NLW MS 12350A.
  • File
  • 1796-1799

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

Davies, John, 1722-1799

Letters to John Lloyd of Wigfair,

Sixty-four holograph letters and three formal notes from [Sir] Jos[eph] Banks, from Soho Square [London], from Spring Grove [Isleworth, co. Middlesex], from Revesby Abbey [Lincolnshire], etc., to John Lloyd at Hafodunos, at Soughton, Northop, at Wygfair, St. Asaph, etc., 1778-1814 and undated (personal and family news and news of acquaintances, and more specifically an invitation to a Royal Society club dinner (1778); Lord Mahon's book on electricity [Principles of Electricity, 1779] and his promise of another in which he would refute Mr. [Benjamin] Wilson's deductions, news of Lord Mulgrave and [Sir Charles] Blagden, and a request for a specimen of saxifraga umbrosa from Ireland (1780); a paper on new double stars to be read to the R[oyal] S[ociety] by [William] Herschel, the death of [? Dr. Solander] and a request for a specimen of Crataegus Aria from the cliffs near the top of Pen Man Mawr [co. Caernarvon] (1782); a balloon flight across the English Channel by [John] Jefferies and [François] Blanchard [this letter is dated January 1784 but this is probably a mistake for 1785, the flight having been made in January of that year], the resignation of the clerkship of the R[oyal] S[ociety] by Robertson and a contest for the post between Messrs. Coppard and Gilpin (1785); [William] Herschel's visit to Germany to take a telescope of his own making as a present to the University of Gottingen, Herschel's progress with his forty feet [telescope], the discovery of a new comet by Caroline, Herschel's sister, a 'bill intended by the manufacturers to restrain the growers of wool' and a meeting to be held in Denbighshire to consider the bill, the teaching of classics in England as compared with the continent (1786); the receipt of a box of plants from the Snowdon area, Danish and Roman antiquities found in the bed of the river Witham [co. Lincoln], the danger of wheat which was imported from America being infected by insects unknown in this country (1788); comments on Shetland sheep and a request for a specimen (1791); the political situation with comments on democrats, constitutionalists, the Whig club, etc., (1793); a visit from David Pennant, the ill treatment of recipient by a riotous mob at Denbigh, the presence of 'dangerous mobs in many counties' caused by 'the first Raising of the Militia', the price of corn, damage estimated at £ 750,000 by floods in Cambridgeshire, Lloyd's service to the country as a magistrate and the value of this office to the constitution, sheep rearing, the discovering of gold in Ireland (1795); the result of the [parliamentary] election in [co. Caernarvon] with mention of the contestants Sir Robert [Williams] and Lord Penrhyn, acknowledgement of receipt of copies of 'Shon Gwialen', the ill effects of apple insect, good wishes to recipient should he 'undertake the arduous task of becoming Knight of your shire', criticism of Thomas and David Pennant (1796); a request by Lloyd for a copy of the map which accompanied Dr. [Christopher] Packe's Ancographia sive Convallium Descriptio (1798); [Frederick] Hornemann's journey to Africa [on behalf of the African Association], the effects of prolonged drought, comments on Adam Smith's theory of 'perfect freedom in trade' (1800); the abundant crops and the price of grain (1801); the result of the [parliamentary] election in co. Kent, the West India docks in the Isle of Dogs and the Wapping Docks, the health of the members of the Royal Family whom the writer had seen at Weymouth (1802); the possibility of an invasion of England by Buonaparte (1803, 1805); Lloyd's wish to become a trustee of the [?British] Museum (1804); the death of [Alexander] Aubert at Lloyd's home, the draining and selling of land by the writer (1805); the writer's anger on seeing the spires of Lincoln minster pulled down, a request for Lloyd's help in procuring answers to a questionnaire concerning alleged damage to cathedral fabrics, comments on 'the Political Hurricane' which had taken the King out of the hands of a Whig administration, the political changes in England, wire worms, the anniversary of the Club, astronomical data (1807); the cultivation of cranberries, news of crops (1808); receipt of a Brazil coin and of tokens for his sister's [Sarah Sophia Banks] collection, Sir H. Englefield's circular letter and canvass of the Society of Antiquaries (1811)). 'Shon Gwialan' probably refers to the pamphlet entitled 'A Letter to the Right Reverend Dr. Warren on his conduct as Bishop of Bangor', published in 1796, in which the writer, 'Shon Gwialan', attacks the bishop of Bangor for alleged nepotism, etc. The identity of the writer has not been discovered.

Sir Joseph Banks.