THOMAS
,
ROBERT
(
Ap Vychan
;
1809
-
1880
),
Independent minister and tutor, poet and man of letters
;
b. at
Tŷ Coch
,
Pennantlliw-bach
,
Llanuwchllyn
,
11 Aug. 1809
, the third of ten children, his father,
DAFYDD
THOMAS
(
Dewi ap
Didymus
;
1782
-
1863
) being from the parish of
Llangower
and his mother having been born at
Tŷ Coch
.
Dafydd
Thomas
was a man of culture and had educated himself far above the average; hymns written by him will be found in the
Independent
Caniedydd
; some of his work appears in
Cymru (O.M.E.)
, iv, and
Ap Vychan
published a memoir of him in
1863
. As his circumstances did not permit him to send his children to school he himself instructed them and taught
Ap Vychan
to read, write, and count, and, in addition, initiated him into the mysteries of writing poetry. The family moved to a larger house, called
Tan-y-castell
, which was built by the father; and in his autobiography the son speaks of the precarious days of his childhood. Before he was 10 years of age he had obtained a situation as a
shepherd boy
with
Evan
Davies
and his wife at
Tŷ Mawr
near his home. Here the family was noted for its piety, and the impression it made on his mind was to last him all his life.
Michael
Jones
(q.v.)
was the
minister
of the ‘
Old Chapel
,’ the
Sunday school
flourished in the district, and the boy was not backward in snatching at every opportunity of acquiring knowledge. By the time he was 14 he could shape an
englyn
, and on the strength of this ability was admitted a member of the
Cymreigyddion Society
of
Llanuwchllyn
. On
1 March 1826
,
Michael
Jones
made him a grant from the
Dr.
Daniel
Williams
bequest (to enable poor children to learn a trade), and on the strength of this he was apprenticed to
Simon
Jones
, a local
blacksmith
. After serving his apprenticeship he went to
Tŷn Cefn
, near
Corwen
, where he remained for six months before turning his face, in
Sept. 1829
, towards
South Wales
. Here, he worked at
Tredegar
and
Dowlais
but returned the following year to his old master at
Lôn
. He did not stay with him long for, in
May 1830
, he moved to
Oswestry
to work for
Edward
Price
(q.v.)
. At
Oswestry
he had the opportunity of getting acquainted with the
English
language and immediately joined the
English church
which was then under the ministry of
Dr.
T. W.
Jenkyn
(q.v.)
. He now set about studying the works of
Dr.
Edward
Williams
,
Fuller
,
Jonathan
Edwards
, and others. There were some who were anxious to see him begin
preaching
in the
English chapel
but at the beginning of
1835
he left and went to
Conway
and that summer he preached his first sermon at
Henryd
, which was not far away. He soon became known and received a call to
Dinas Mawddwy
, where he was ordained,
19 June 1840
. In
1842
he went to
Liverpool
to take charge of the new
Salem chapel
, where he remained until
1848
when he moved to
Rhosllannerchrugog
. In
1855
he came to
Bangor
as successor to
Dr.
Arthur
Jones
(q.v.)
and remained there until, in
1873
, he was appointed
tutor in divinity
at
Bala Independent College
and
minister
of the local church. He d.
23 April 1880
and was buried in
Llanuwchllyn
churchyard.
He twice won the
chair
at the national eisteddfod, once at
Rhyl
in
1864
and once at
Chester
in
1866
. After the
Rhyl eisteddfod
he was known as
Ap Vychan
from the pseudonym he had adopted on that occasion — a pseudonym adopted because he was descended from the distinguished family of
Vaughans
of
Caer-gai
,
Llanuwchllyn
. He edited
Cofiant Cadwaladr Jones, Dolgellau
, and was
joint editor
of the
Dysgedydd
from
1865 to 1880
. He was
chairman
of the
Union of Welsh Independents
in
1876
. He had early attracted attention as a
preacher
and retained his popularity until the end; he had a great gift for swaying the congregations at a preaching festival. As far as his tenets were concerned he insisted that he was a
moderate Calvinist
.
He had a most gracious personality and his opinion and advice were eagerly sought. He was one of the very few who kept their reputations untarnished throughout the ‘
Battle of the Constitutions
’ in connection with
Bala College
; and he stood firmly by the side of his friend
M. D.
Jones
(q.v.)
to the end.
Bibliography:
-
Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru
, i, 428; iii, 271-2, 328; iv, 27, 32, 458;
-
M. D. Jones
and
D. V. Thomas
,
Cofiant a Thraethodau Duwinyddol y Parch. R.
Thomas (Ap Vychan), Bala
, Dolgellau, 1882
;
-
Gwaith Ap Vychan Cyfres y Fil 7
,
Llanuwchllyn, 1903
(‘Cyfres y Fil’);
-
Y Traethodydd
,
1903
, 429;
-
Cymru
, xxii, 293; xxiv, 133; xxv, 53;
-
National Library of Wales
Manuscripts
3292,4616, 5672,6436-7.
Author:
Rev. Richard Griffith Owen, M.A., (1890-1973), Bangor
His brother
ELLIS
THOMAS
(
1823
-
1878
),
blacksmith
and
poet
, was b.
2 April 1823
at
Tanycastell
,
Pennantlliw-bach, Mer.
When the family moved to
Meifod, Mont.
, the son
worked on farms
in that county; later, he worked at
Rhuddlan
and
Kinsford, Flints.
, and at
Ellesmere
,
Salop
, as a
blacksmith
. He emigrated to the
U.S.A.
in
1852
, settled in
Utica
, and worked as a
blacksmith on railways
which were being constructed in
Oneida County
. He d.
5 Oct. 1878
. Many years after his death a selection of his poetical works was published (at
Utica
,
1900
) under the title of
Caniadau yr Efail
.
Bibliography:
-
Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd sef cylchgrawn
gwybodaeth fuddiol a dyddorawl i Gymry America / The
American messenger
, Utica, New York, 1840-1901
,
1879
, 108-110.
Author:
Robert (Bob) Owen, O.B.E., M.A., (1885-1962), Croesor
