KELSALL
,
JOHN
(
fl.
1683-1743
),
Quaker diarist
;
b. in
London
in
1683
. He came to
Wales
in
1702
, and
kept school
(he was a man of good education) at
Dolobran, Mont.
, while also acting as
clerk in the iron-works
belonging to the
Lloyd
family of
Dolobran
(q.v.)
. He was in the
Lloyds
' service
till
c.
1743
, being dispatched here and there in their industrial interests; e.g. he
supervised their furnaces
near
Dolgelley
in
1714-20
and again at intervals
between 1729 and 1736
. Later on, he fell into adversity, and after wandering to
Bristol
and to
Ireland
, is last heard of at
Chester
. He appears in the present work in virtue of his very detailed diaries, now kept (together with a volume of verse written by him between
1702 and 1743
) at the
Friends’ House
in
London
. They are wanting for the years
1699-1712
(yet there is an index to these missing years), but are complete from then on to
May 1743
. They are an invaluable source for the chequered history of the
Lloyd
fortunes, for that of the
North Wales
iron industry, and for that of
Quakerism
in
Wales
during that period.
Edward
Griffith
(q.v.)
printed excerpts in
Wales (O.M.E.)
, ii — see also
Trans. Caerns. Hist. Soc.
,
1940
, 75-6.
Kelsall
published a book,
The Faithful Monitor
,
1726
. When he d. has not been discovered.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
