Welsh Journals

account of the Convincement, Exercises, Services and Travels of that Ancient Servant of the Lord, Richard Davies He met his wife, who was also a member of the Quaker fraternity, at a meeting in London and brought her to Wales. She died in 1705 and was buried in the Graveyard at Cloddiau Cochion. This Quaker Burial Ground is in a field adjoining the farm house, although it is now overgrown and levelled. Originally, there was a stone wall built round the space, and the land for it was probably given by the Lewis family when they joined the Friends about 1662. Besides Richard Davies and his wife, several members of the Lloyd family of Dolobran were buried there. Charles Lloyd's wife Elizabeth (nee Lort) was interred there, during the time of her husband's imprisonment in Welshpool for his faith; also Charles Lloyd himself, together with four of their sons, George, Thomas, John and Richard, who all died in their mother's lifetime. I have no record of the date of the last burial in Cloddiau, but in a list of "Properties of Friends in North Wales," drawn up about 1834, Cloddiau graveyard is included. It is interesting to note that it is on record that the last Quaker to be buried in Montgomeryshire in a Quaker Burial Ground was Richard Brown, the blind grocer of Llanidloes, in 1850. He, his wife and an old lady who lived with them were interred in the Esgairgoch Quaker's burying place, near Llanbrynmair. During Richard Davies' lifetime, Quakerism attained its peak in North Wales, but after his death, and the death of the Lloyds, its influence and strength gradu- ally diminished. It is worthwhile recording that after the restoration of both Monarchy and Church in 1660 there came about a complete collapse of Puritanism in the neigh- bourhood-only one body of Nonconformists survived the storm, viz., the Quakers, and these earnest people had quite a numerous following in and about Welshpool at that time. Dr. Thomas Lloyd was married to Mary Jones of Traeth, at a Quakers' meeting at Cloddiau. After the ceremony, on their way back to Dolobran, the wedding party was held up by two Constables with pistols who seized Thomas Lloyd's horse by the bridle. On asking for their warrant, it was produced to seize and take the person of Thomas Lloyd of Dolobran and commit the same to Welshpool Gaol on the charge of attending an unlawful Conventicle at Cloddiau Cochion." In 1683 a large number of Welsh Quakers emigrated to Pennsylvania and