Lloyd died. His uncle John Lloyd paid for his education at Castelllrywel and Cannarthen

Academy, which he entered in the year 1784, when it briefly moved to Swansea under

David Peter(1765 -1837),authorof Hanes Crefyddyng Nghymru. CharlesLloyd ministered

as an Arian in Evesham,Ditchling and Exeter, returning to Wales on inhdtitirrg Coedlarlnau

n 1799, by which time he was a declared Unitarian. His capital depleted by the poor

harvestof 1800 and 1801 he soughtto join David Davis in ministering to the congregations

at Llwynrhydowen, but Davis resisted his advanced Unitarian views and tumed for

assistanceto his own son Timothy.

In 1801 a Unitarian secession occurred from Llwynrhydowen and Alltyblacca

establishingPantydefaid (Llandysul, 1802) and Capel y Groes (Llanwnne4 1802)

respectively.The new causeswere opened in tum by Iolo Morganwg,whose hamping visits

to Londonlinked the "Black Spot"Unitarians with the progressiveUnilarians of the ageof

Priestley,being one of the original worshippersat Britain's first Unitarian congregationin

London'sEssex Street. Both chapelswere registeredat QuarterSessions for the worship of

ProtestantDissenters. In his brief autobiographyCharles Lloyd looked back on the

foundingof thesetwo chapelswith pride:

Our successwas rapid and considerable. The whole coun@ was roused to inquiry

and curiosity or a better principle brought people to our assembliesfrom the distance

of many miles. My services were extemporaneousand not disapproved. When on

the completion of our chapels,we were formed as churches,eighty persons sat down

at the Lord's Table in one of them, and sixfy in the other ... This was the most

important era of my life.23

- Evans, Lloyd Letters, p. norvi.

$t Elsewhere Lloyd comments on the high standard of intellectual life achieved at Capel y

Groes. He was "not before aware of the capaclty of the Welsh langlrageto convey ideas on

subjectsof morality, metaphysics,and general science".24

Pantydefaid was taken over by John Jarnes, a local man who had studied at Exeter,

having been refused admission to Carmarthen Academy under Peter because of his

advancedviews. Jameslodged with D. Jenkin Rees(1760-1817), a self-taughtfarmer from

Llwyd Jack in the Aeron val1ey.25In the politically charged atrnosphereof the French Wars

Rees registered one of the outbuildings on his fa:rn at Quarter Sessions for worship by

ProtestantDissenters, in factJior worship by Unitarian secedersfrom Ciliau. A substantial

farner, who introdueed progressive farming methods into his locality, Rees built a

schoolhouseat his own expenseat Maesllan in the village of Ystrad Aeron, which was also

used for worship as the congregation grew in size. Rees had previously given financial

support to the building of Capel y Groes.26 Following Rees's death attempts were made to

prevent the congregation building their own chapel, until in 1847 the local landlord, Lord

Carringtoa offered them a plot of land at Rhydygwin Qlanfihangel Yshad, 7848).27 At

Cribyn (Llanfihangel Ystad, 1790) a chapel was registered for the worship of Protestant

DissentersrnlTgl,the name given to the court, "Crubin Clottws", suggesting links with the

textile industry. This group of chapels extended a warln welcome to the early Wesleyan

missionaries who were allowed to preach their own brand of Arminianism in these

chapels.2s Cribyn was the base of pastor Thomas Emlyn Willians, a leader of his

2aMonthly Repository, 1817,p.743.

2t Ibid., pp.74045; T. O. Williams, Undodiaetha RhyddidMeddwl (Llandysul, 1962),pp.239-44. Surprisingly,there isno ufiry nD.W.B.

26 MonthlyRepository, 1817,p,743.

2? D. E. Davies,They Thought For Themselves(Llandysul, 1932), pp. 56-58.

tt q..U. Wittia-s, WelshWesleyanism Methodism (Bangor, 1 935), p. 108. 10

3t community at the time of the RebeccaRiots.2e

The transition &om Arianism into Unitarianism during the period of the French Wars

representsa renewed politicisation of the dissenting tradition, given sharpened libertarian

focus through sympathy with the new French politics, a sympathy which became

treasonableafter 1793. In CarmarthenshireThomas Evans (Tomos Glyn Cothi) had built a

meeting house in Brechfa ln 1796, with financial assistancefrom D. Jenkin Rees, Llwyd

Jack, which can claim to be the first openly Unitarian place of worship in Wales. It did not

register with the authorities, although the chapel subsequentlybuilt at Cwmwrdu by William

Reesin 1832 is recordedin the Religious Census(Llanfihangel Rhos y Com, 1832). Evans

was a weaver by trad.o,and seems to have come into contact with Unitarianism through

selling his cloth in Glamorgan. His enthusiasm for rational Christianity led to his being

nicknamed "Priesfley bachu in his locality. IL 1795 he started a short-lived periodical, the

Miscellaneous Repository. In 1801 he fell foul of the authorities when he sang Jacobin

songs,possibly including his own Welsh translation of the Marseillaise, at a "cwrw bach"

for his neigbbours, for which he was pilloried. In a letter to the Horne Secretary, Lord

Pelham, Samuel Horsely, the Bishop of St David's, complained at the lenient way in which

Evanswas punished:

The offencefor which ThomasEvans was tied was directlyagainst his Majesty,and

thereforeto .q.tandin the Pillory ... waspart of his sentence... And that the mannerin

which he rygspilloried was a farce ... I am sureyour Lordshipwill be of the opinion

whenyolare told that thoughhis handswere indeedthrough two holes,the Pillory

was a box in which he could either standand look abouthim, or sit down perfect$

aut of sight, as he pleased;one of his children,a little girl in a white frock being tn D. Williams.The Rebecca Riots (Cardtfr1955),p.274

11

at permitted to stand aside him in order to excite the compassionof spectators.30

Evanswas subsequentlyimprisoned in Carmarthengaol, his congregationraising a petition

for his releasewhich includedthe signatureof Iolo Morganwg. In 1811 he moved to

Aberdareto take chargeof the Unitarian causethere, and the congregationat Cwmwrdu

dwindled. Meanwhile the Bishop of St David's was subjectedto a fierce diatribe in

pamphletform from David Jones(1765-1816), alias the "WelshFreeholder", a London 1 Unitarianwho hailedoriginally from Pencader.3

At Rhyd y parc Gtenttai.fmeoed, 1787) an amalgamof secedersfrom the Baptist

chapelsat Glandfrr qnd lre-lech establisheda Unitarian congregatiorlrecorded in the

ReligiousCensus, under the minis@ first of Owen Davies, then of local farmer David

Phillips. The move in the direction of rational religion taken by the Carmarthenshire

Baptistsinvolved in the Meidrim split of 1799was a more complexphenomenon.32 The

dissatisfactionof someBaptists with the newermethodising elements was aggravatedby a

disputeover firnding from the ParticularBaptist Fund in Londonwhich, tn 1797,demanded

orthodoxy from individual Welsh ministers. A number of Baptist chapels split into

Particular and General congregations,some of the General Baptists progressinginto

Unitarianism,as happenedat Pant-teg(Cilrhedyn, 1764), who arerecorded in the Religious

Censusas Unitarian Free Baptists. A brief excursion into Unitarianism at Llandyf6n

QlandeiloFawr, 1800)ended when the Calvinistparty was restoredin 1808. A Unitarian

remnantused the chapelof easeuntil it was recalledto use by the Church of England in

1838;their descendants built the chapelat Onnenfawr(Llandeilo Fawr, 1340).

30 Quotedin Davies,They Thought For Themsehtes,pp. 105-108. rr DavidJones wrote two pamphletsdirected at SamuelHorsely unda this double-edgednom de plumewhich combines mentionof the poorestsocial group with the idea of holding to freedom. A Letter to the Right ReverendSamuel, Lord Bishopof St David's,2nd ed.(1791) and The WelshFreeholder's Yindication (1791).

"R.T.Jeokios,'WilliamRichardsoLl'nn',T.C-H.B.C.,(1930),pp. 17-68. Corrections,T.C.H.B.C.,(1931). t2

$t At the beginning of the nineteenth century, therefore, there were four properly Unitarian

congregationsin Carmarthenshire:Cwmwrdu and Penrhiw, deriving.from the Independents,

and Rhyd y parc and Pant-teg from the Baptists. R. T. Jenkins observed that in

Carmarthenshirethe Unitarian congregationstended to decline with the generation that gave

them birttr, both becauseWesleyanism drained off a good deal of the Arminianism and

becausethe Calvinists "gradually became patient of wider conceptions".33 The only new

Unitarian cause established in Carmarthenshire after this in fact derived from the eariier

Meidrim split. One expelled member, Benjamin Phillips, establishedthe Unitarian Capel y

Graig (St Clears, 1826), u{rich was strengthened by a secession from Bethlehem

lndependent chapel (St Cle.ars, 1764). David Johq a blacksmith and a member of this

Unitarian congregation,was to move to Merthyr Tydfil as a Unitarian minister, becoming a

' leaderof Merthyr's "moral force" Chartists.

The contrast betweenthe fragility of Unitarianism in Carmarthenshireand its strength in

the "Black Spot" in Cardiganshireis well illustrated in the diary of Mr I. Lyons of Chester, 'Wales kep during his missionary tour of in the srunmer of 1810.34 In Jrure of that year he

preachedto smaller, mixed congregations in Carmarthenshire. In July, wlien he reached

David Davis's congregationat Llwynrhydowen, he struck a more optimistic note in his diary

entries. At Capel y Groes, on Bastille Day, he noted, "the largest congregation of

Unitarians I saw in Wales ... Many of the members of this congregation are respectable

farmers,they are people of good information, and very zealous Unitarians".3s

The Black Spot was not destinedto expand,but this unique redoubt of rural Unitarianism

maintained a vigorous life well into the twentieth century. Their total stength was, of

" Lloyd (ed.),Carnarthenshire, Il, p. 256.

1a MonthlyRepository, l8ll, pp.60,362, 561, 683-92.

" Ibid..o. 69r. 13

Jt course, small. On census day, attendances, with the exception of the 500 given for

Llwynrhydowen and the 250 for Capel y Groes, were small. Together they accounted for

only 3.5 per cent ofthe worshippersin Cardiganshire.36

Some measureof Unitarian activity towards the end of this period may be obtained from

the diary of John Thomas(1784-1861), minister at Pantydefaidand Capel y Groes,which he

kept from 1819 until shortly before his death.3i Part of his income at Pantydefaid derived

from an annuity bequeathedby Thomas Thomas in 1818 to the Minister there. In 1844,

when he was 60, scandalbroke at Pantydefaid when Thomas'shouse-servant gave birth to a

child. Reluctantly he dismisead his servant who had been "denied the elements" at the

Lord's Supper. John Thonias left Pantydefaid and set up school in Llandysul, where he

taught classics and mathematics,and also, as he records in December 1846, "I give offence

by preaching at my schoolroom".

A congregation is recorded as attending the schoolroom for Unitarian worship in the

Religious Census(Llandysul, 1845). After five years of wrangling he allowed the annuity to

pass into the hands of his successor at Pantydefaid. His diary is fulI of references to

Priestley's work, which he clearly followed in detail, and also makes a ntrmber of

disparagingreferences to the Wesleyans. For example, he complained about their h.aldbg

"a begging meeting" in Llandysul in October 1846 b liquidate thd debt at Penuel

(Llandysul, 1808), where in January 1855 "much nonsensewasbabbfed for an hour and a

half' at a public lecture he had to pay a shilling to attend. Over half a century" relations

betweenthe Unitarians and Wesleyanshad cooled markedly.

In July 1856 John Thomas went to Llwynrhydowen to see (for he was now too deaf tq

hear) the young William Thomas (Gwilym Marles) preach at Llwynrhydowen. Gwilym

36D.Williams,'ThecensusofreligiousworshipinCardiganshtre',Ceredigion,'lY.2(1961),p.123.

3t The diary of John Thomas is in fhe possessionof Mrs D. Williams, Llanybydder.

I4

Jt Marles had been educatedat Carmarthen Academy and then at the University of Glasgow,

where he and Charles Dickens were judged the most distinguished studentsof their year. An

Independentwhen he enrolled at Cannarthen Academy, he was a convinced Unitarian on

completion of his studies. After a brief period working as private tutor to his namesake

Islwyn (William Thomas, 1832-1878),he was called to the ministy at Bwlch-y fadfa then,

in 1860,to Llwynrhydowenwhere he was to remain until his deathin 1879. The chapel had

beenbuilt in 1834 during the ministy of John Davies, Llanybri, replacing the second chapel

on this site built lrl'1791 during the ministy of David Davis. Under Gwilym Marles the

chapel was renovated in 1864 a bicentennial commemoration of the Ejection (Y Troad

Allan). By the time of his call to Llwynrhydowen as a young man, Unitarianism had

progressed from the intellectual world of Priestley to the new rationalistic school of

TheodoreParker (1S10-60).3t G*ily- Marles was an advocateof this newtheology, so that

in 1860,as in 1733,Llwynrhydowen was againleading the way.3e

Gwilym Marles was radicalised politically during the "Hungry Forties". These were

yearsof evictions and emigration. Anna Lloyd Jones,the mother of the celebratedAmerican

architect Frank Lloyd Wright, had crossed the Atlantic from west Wales in the autumn of

1844, in a pulse of emigration provoked by agricultural depression.Poverty had driven her

parents, Richard Lloyd Jones and his wife Mary, known as "Mallie", from their ten-acre

farm on Blaen-alltddu, along with other tenants of Alltyrodyr near Pren-gwyn in

Cardiganshire. They had tried supplementing their farrn income by millinery; Richard

demonstratingthe quality of his tall, conical ladies hats at market by standing on them, a

sufficient test as he a well-built man some six feet tall. With thefu seven children the Lloyd

38 Wiiliam Thomaswas the great-uncleof the poet Dylan Thomas,whose middle namewas Marlais. It hasbeen suggested that the poeticeffirsions of the Revd.Eli Jenkinsn UnderMilk Woodresetnble the verseof his great-uncle. 3e The progressivetradition continuedinto the twentieth century. Llwyrhydowen chapelprominently displayeda bust of Lenin.

15 Jonesesset sail from New Quayfor the New World only to seetheir vesseldismasted and

havingto put into Liverpool for refitting. They did not arrive i" Nry York until December, wherethey were quickly fleecedin the crowdedstreets of Dutch Manhattan.They headed

for the securityof the Welshsettlement in Utica.

The family evictedfrom Ffynnonllewelynwas lessfortunate. Sailing from Liverpool, the moneyobtained from the auction of their smallholdingsewn into their clothing, Da$'dd

Jonesand family setsail forNew York. The childrenof the family, however,two sonsand a

daughter,developed syrnptoms of smallpox on the crossingand the ship's master was obliged to put them ashoreon BlacloarellIsland where they died in quarantine.ooTh. distraugbtparents heard thgnews on arrival in New York andretumed to Walesto die from brokenhearts. This melancholytale is recountedon their memorialon the north wall of their

Independentchapel, Carmel (Llandysul, 1819). It was Gwilyrn Marleswho had conducted the farewellservice at the farmymdof Ffunonllewelynfollowing the auction.

Gwilym Marlesbecame a committedLiberal, joining the political fray in Cardiganshirein the headydays before and after the 1868General Election making frequent contributions to the press,public lecturesand a regular streamof serrnonsthat antagonisedlocal landlords.

He was a strong advocateof the secret ballot, the achievementof which n 1872 emboldenedhim firther. On29 October7876, tbe young playboy squire John Davies Lloyd of Alltyrodyn, from whom the Unitariansof Llwynrhydowenrented the land upon which their chapelstood, sensationally evicted them, stating that the chapelhad beenbuilt "for the worshipof God and to no other purposewhatsoever." On the following Sunday,Gwilyn

Marles preachedto somethree thousandsouls at the roadside,ten times the size of his regularcongregation, assembled with his back to the chainedentrance gates of the chapel grounds.He warnedthat this vindictive act was the harbingerof a generalpersecution of

a0 BlackwellIsland changed its namg first to WelfareIsland n lgzl,then to RooseveltIsland in 1972. 76

,t nonconformistswho traced their origins to a prior eviction from their livings over two

centuriesearlier in 7662.The eviction atfacted nationalpublicity, 'be conservativeWestern

Mail assttingits readersthat no real Christianshad been evicted, "only Unitarians".

The Llwynrhydowencongregation found temporaryrefuge in a wooden chapel,Ty-coed,

now a dwelling house,a kilomete to the Southwestof the Old Chapelon the Newcastle

Erolynroad. A continuednation-wide fund-raising campaign saw aNew Chapelopened in

1879on the roadto Pont-siAn,a kilomete to the Norlh. Gwilym Marles,a brokenman, wzrs

too weak to attend the opening ceremonies. A visit to Scotland followed by a

Mediterraneancruise and al,lxcursion to Vienna failed in turn to undo the damagethat threatsand bullying fr.om t{e to"* t*aowner had effected.He diedon 11 December1879,

aged45 years,and is bwied in front of the New Chapelthat was subsequentlydedicated to

his memory

In the Springof the previousyear, the Squireof Alltyrodyn had also passedaway at the remarkablyyoung age of 28 years. His last days were tainted with rumours of an unseemlyliaison with a gypsy dancerto whom he had been introducedon a visit to the

Alhambrain Granada.His will augmentedthe scandal.He left the bulk of his estateto his

stewardand lawyer, Mason Allen. The will was successfullychallenged by his only sr:rvivingclose relative,his sister Mrs Massey.A few months before his deattr, Gwilym

Mmleslearned that Mrs Masseyhad gifted the Old Chapelback to the congregation.

T7

$t Bibliography

D.R.Barnes, People of Seion(Llandysul, 1995) D. Elwyn Davies,They Thoughtfor ThemselvesS.Landysul, 1982). D. Elwyn Davies,Smotiau Duon (Llandysul,1980) A. Martin, H anes Llwynrltydow en $-landy sul, | 977 ) N. Martin, Gwilym Mmles (Llandysu1,1979) T. OswaldWilliams, Undodiaetha RhyddidMeddwl Q-landysul,1962)

Geraint H. Jenkins, Bywiogrwydd Creffddol a Llenyddol Dyffi:'/n Teifi, 1689-1740 Ceredigion,VI[I, 4 (1979)

TE

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