ISAAC
,
DAVID LLOYD
(
1818
-
1876
),
cleric and author
;
b. at
Llanwenog, Cards.
,
10 Feb. 1818
. He was a member of
Aberduar
(
Llanybydder, Carms.
) Baptist church (
D.
Jones
,
Hanes Bed. Deheubarth
, 336), and went to
Abergavenny Baptist Academy
in
1835
(
Rufus
Williams
,
Hanes Athrofeydd y Bedyddwyr
, 35), and thence to the newly-opened
Baptist College
at
Pontypool
(ibid, 65) — his name is the first on the list of students. In
1838
he became
pastor
at
Neath
, and
founded new churches
at
Aberdylais
,
Glyn Neath
, and
Pontardawe
; he also initiated a
Cymreigyddion Society
at
Neath
. But internal disputes arose, and
Isaac
was also suspected of unorthodoxy (
D. R.
Phillips
,
Hist. of the Vale of Neath
, 155), so in
1841
he moved to
Trosnant church
in
Pontypool
. His career there was stormy (
Bradney
,
Monmouthshire
, I, ii, 455;
Y Bedyddiwr
,
Jan. 1854
;
Yr Haul
,
1854
, 64) so in
1853
he became an
Anglican
, and went to
S. David's College
,
Lampeter
. He was ordained
deacon
23 Sept. 1855
at
Llandaff
(
Haul
,
1855
, 363) and
priested
21 Sept. 1856
(ibid.,
1856
, 323), and licensed to the
curacy
of
Llangattock-juxta-Neath
. In
1858
, he was given the
perpetual curacy
of
Llangathen, Carms.
; a note in the parish register (
Trans. Carm. Ant. Soc.
, vii, 36) shows that he was diligent there,
building a school and a vicarage
,
rebuilding a ruined chapel
,
restoring the church
, and increasing the number of communicants. He was preferred in
1871
(
Haul
,
1871
, 278) to the
vicariate
of
Llangamarch
,
Brecknock
, and d. there
31 Jan. 1876
. Throughout his career,
Isaac
was an industrious (though unsystematic and uncritical)
writer on history, antiquities, and philology
. When a
Baptist
, he wrote much in
Seren Gomer
; as an
Anglican
, even in his
Lampeter
days, he was a voluminous contributor to
Yr Haul
— one may specify his articles on antiquities (
Haul
,
1854-5
) and on the translators of the
Bible
(ibid.,
1856
), and the miscellany ‘
Llyfrgell Llwyd o Langathen
’ (ibid.,
1858-9
); he also engaged in controversy with Dissent. He published in
1859
a volume,
Siluriana
, on the history of
Monmouthshire
and
Glamorgan
, a rather unskilful piece of quarrying in the manuscripts of
William
Davies
of
Cringell
(q.v.)
(on this matter, see
D. R.
Phillips
in
Jnl. Welsh Bibliog. Soc.
, ii, 29-33); and in
1860
an eisteddfodic prize-essay
Hanes Llanbedr a'r
Gymmydogaeth
; according to
Bradney
, he also published a book on
Whitland Abbey
.
Bibliography:
-
Sources indicated; the date and place of birth, and the date of death, are taken from
D. Rhys Phillips
,
Journal of the Welsh Bibliographical
Society
, loc. cit.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
