Welsh Journals

Neither of my informants could say how long ago this happened. They gave the story as it had been handed down from father to son in the village, over an indefinite period of time. They also said that Parson Lloyd was a good man, who was much respected by the parishioners,-and very unlike a later vicar, who was a drunkard and drove most of the people to join the Baptist Chapel of Maesyrhelem. Then came, very recently, my further information about the Rev. David Lloyd, (1) from certain references in the Hereford Times of 1839 and 2 from a book of poems which he wrote. From the former I find that David Lloyd died in 1838 at the age of 86, having been vicar of Llanbister since the year 1789. As long as that had his memory persisted. Furthermore the story told by the old residents of the parish is exactly confirmed by the news- paper accounts, for the vicar and his good deed became a newspaper item from the fact that his heir-at-law challenged at the Presteigne Assizes the right of the Methodists to land which they claimed as his gift for the purpose of building a chapel. It is satisfactory to record that the Methodists established their claim, so that the wish of the vicar was not set aside. One of the newspaper accounts gave some particulars of the vicar himself, from which it is evident that his interest in the Methodists was of long standing. One of my informants had said that he was a friend of John Wesley. I had doubted this, since Wesley died in 1791, but the newspaper confirmed the story up to a point. It stated that Wesley had wished him to become an itinerant preacher, and that Lloyd, owing to his voice being weak and unsuited to open-air preaching, had felt better suited for a clergyman, and had consequently sought episcopal ordination." Evidently Wesley knew him as a young man, and had been impressed by his abilities. The book of poems has been shown to me by Miss Coates, a member of our Society. The Rev. David Lloyd was a forebear of her family, and the book is inscribed by the author to Miss My. Coates of Ludlow, with sincere esteem and best compliments by the Author, D. Lid. under the date December 4th, 1831. The book is entitled Poems Characteristic of Human Life," and is The Second Edition, Revised." It is a small octavo volume, bound in calf, and printed in 1812.