Welsh Journals

WALES. Vol. II.] MARCH, 1895. [No. 11. THE FRIENDS IN WALES. I.—INTRODUCTION. By E. Griffith, J.P., Dolgellau. UAKERISM" has been a great power in many parts of Wales where, by this time, the very name of the Friends has been forgotten among the peasantry. A solitary burial-place in the mountains, a tradition of meek suffering, the name of a rough stone pulpit,—these are the only memorials of the men and women who taught the high ideals of honesty and peace during times of religious indifference and of religious fervour alike. It will be interesting to Welshmen, arid to the descendants of the Welsh Quakers in America, to have a series of documents and traditions to illustrate the history of those Who did so much for their fellow men. To begin with, I give extracts from the diary of a Friend who describes his work in Merioneth and Montgomery in the early part of the eighteenth century. The ex¬ tracts were sent by Edward Griffith, J.P., of Dolgellau, who has made the interesting history of the Friends his particular study. The documents will be illustrated and furnished with notes. II.—JOHN KELSALE. The following extracts were taken out of three volumes of John Kelsale's journal or diary. From other volumes of a similar character, from poems composed by him, and from documents stored in the Friends' MSS. library at Devonshire House, London, the following brief life of the writer of the diary has been drawn. John Kelsale and his brother Joseph were born in London, in the year 1683. Their father dying in 1684, and mother in 1685, they were left orphans in infancy. In 1687 they were, it is said, fetched from London 7 97 by their grandmother, Jennett Thomson (Crogg) to her home in Wynsdale, near Lancaster, riding in panniers on her galloway. John had part of his education at the Abbeystead school, and afterwards under Gilbert Thompson, at Penketh. He began to keep school himself when about eighteen years of age, at Dolobran, in Wales; he was also employed both there and at Dol Gun as a clerk for some iron-works at those places. The diary from 1699 to 1716 appears to be quite lost. There is an index of it with those of the other years. From 1701 to 1712 there is no volume giving account of the visits and labours of ministering Friends at Dolobran, &c. There is also a diary volume of an earlier date than the extracts here given, from 1716 to 1722. And there is a book of poems of his own composition, both varied and numerous, from 1702 to 1743. III.—EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF JOHN KELSALE. 17-20, XII, 172|.—At a yearly meeting in a large barn at Presteign; thence to Roger Prichard's of Almaly to lodge. 14, II.—Another large meeting at Presteign, several sittings, select and public; John Gurney from Norwich had a very fine opportunity in gospel service ; Thomas Story, Benjamin Holme, and other ministers also there. 13, III.—Had a profitable religious meditation about spiritual husbandry. 28, III.—Went with J. Reynolds to London yearly meeting; lodging at several places by the way, including Sampson Lloyd's at Birmingham. Left their horse at Staines, and thence to Brentford, and by boat to London,—fare 6d. Lodged with