Welsh Journals

Old Brecknock Chips." 16 o blwyf Bedwillty ai cant. Trefecca, ar- graffwyd. " Thou hast been faithful over a few things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." An elegy on the death of Mr David Jones, of Pentre - ty - gwyn, Carmarthenshire. Trefecca : Printed in 1784. 1785. Cyfiawnhad pechadur, neu'r Arglwydd Iesu Grist, yr Arglwydd ein Cyfiawnder, a draddodwyd mewn amryw bregethau, gan Obadiah Grew, D.D., gyut gweinidog yr Jtglwys yng Nghofentri. At ba yn y chwanegwya Traethawd byw er amddiffyn Bedydd plant bychain, &c. Gan y Parch- edig Mr Nathaniel Taylor. Trefecca, argraffwyd yn y flwyddyn mdcclxxxv. The Sinner's Justification, or the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord our Righteousness. By Obadiah Grew, D.D., formerly minister to the Church at Coventry. To which is added a short treatise upholding the Baptism of Infants, &c. By Mr Nathaniel Taylor. Trefecca. 1785. 1785. Llythyr y Gymmanfa at yr Eglwysi yn y flwyddyn 1785. Trefecca, argraphwyd yn y flwyddyn mdccxxxxv. Letter of the Assembly to the Churches in the year 1785. Trefecca. 1785. Elegia, neu Fyfyrdodau ar farwolaeth Mary Thomas, o Drecastell, yn Sir For- ganwg. Gan Thomas Williams. Tre¬ fecca. 1785. Elegia, or Meditations, on the death of Mary Thomas, of Castleton (?) Glamorgan. Tre¬ fecca. 1785. Bbwynllys. (To be continued.) FUIDAY, NOVEMBEE 25th, 1887. NOTES. "BROSELEY TRIUMPHANT," OR THE BRECON MARPRELATE.—When your able American contributor (Mr Henry Blackwell), some few months ago, treated us to an excellent list of old Breconshire books and tracts, there was one tract mentioned by him which greatly excited my curiosity, and I am now able to give the history of it. It consists of a quarto pamphlet of twenty- four pages, probably published at Brecon in the spring of 1783, the full title-page of which is as follows:—"Br—si—y Triumphant, over Tyrants " and Pickpockets, a Pilfering Poet, and a Paltry "P—r—s—n. 'Keep thy Hands from Picking and " Stealing, and thy Tongue from evil Speaking, " Lying, and Slandering.—» hurch Catechism.' The " Fifteenth Edition, with several valuable and "curious Additions, and Improvements by the ' • Editors. Brecknock: Printed for Evan ap Griffith " ap Rees ap Morgan ap Shone ap Walter. Sold by '' several Booksellers in Shropshire.'' This pretended imprint gives a clue to the real name of the party attacked. It is said that the "Paltry P—rs—n indicated was the Rev. Morgan Jones, rector of Willey and Barrow, Shropshire, who was the son of a Brecon blacksmith, named John Walter, and who had made himself unpopular in the neighbourhood of Broseley. The first sentence of the preface of the pamphlet brings the charge against him thus:— "During the Proceedings in the last Sessions of "Parliament for an Act to establish a Court of " Requests at B—si—y, M------n J—es, theR—c—tr "of W—1—y, by every artifice in his power, " endeavoured to raise an opposition to the Bill, "and, with great pains and trouble, framed a "ridiculous Petition, got it signed and sent to "L—n—n, from whence it was returned with the "contempt it deserved:—yet, notwithstanding his "disappointment, and the despicable figure he had " made, he came to the first Court at B—si—y; " and, in the face of a large and respectable number " of gentlemen, assembled to qualify themselves for "Commissioners, he privately stole one of the "printed Acts of Parliament." Mr Jones, it is Baid, returned the Act on an officer of the Court being sent after him for it, and then wrote a poem, which he handed about, lampooning the Com¬ missioners. It was in reply to the Parson's " Pilferinsr Poet" that this pamphlet was published. The pamphlet is principally made up of bits of doggrel—some of it very personal indeed; and besides the Parson, a Wenlock Attorney comes in for a good drubbing. Amongst the doggrel pieces there are one or two showing that the Parson was also chaplain to the 'Squire of Willey. In one of these—"The Blessed Chaplain "—there is this verse:— " My Pateon, God Bless Him, but why should I brag? " A Sportsman has been—good as e'er cross'd a Nag; " But for Company's sake, it were Something divine "His old Friends to desert for the Pref'rence of mine." In another one, called "The Clerical Dupe," we have the following:— " This meek ey'd, Son of Charity, " This matchless Ancient Briton, " To preach, and drink, as good, you'll say, " As ever Bench did sit on : " The 'Squire's Sunday jovial Bowl " He deeply dips his Beak in, " And drinks as well becomes a Soul, " To all Friends round the Wrekin." "The Court of Requests "—the cause of all this little tempest—is stated in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary to have been established under Act of Parliament, passed 22nd George III., "for the recovery of debts under forty shillings:" though why Broseley should possess such an Act the author does not say. Baeoddas. THE REV. MOSES WILLIAMS, VICAR OF DEFYNNOCK.—This celebrated scholar having already been mentioned in the " Chips," I send you a transcript of what appears about him in the late Canon Williams's Eminent Welshmen: "As a " Welsh scholar and antiquary, his talents were of "the highest order, and one of the best the " Principality has ever produced. In 1726 he " published a work, which was the result of great " labour and research, being an alphabetical index " of Welsh poetry preserved in manuscript, with the "first lines, under the title of 'Repertorium " 'Poeticum sive Poematum Wallicorum, quotquot "'hactenus videre contigit, Index Alphabeticus, " 'primam singulorum hneam, et loca ubi inveni- " ' antur, exhibeus. Accedit Poetarum Nomina, et " ' qu ando plerique omnes, floruerint.' Octavo. "London." . . . . "He also left to the " Bodleian Library a lasting proof of his industry,