Welsh Journals

Quakerism in West Montgomeryshire By E. RONALD MORRIS, B.A. Most accounts of Quakerism in Montgomeryshire rightly concentrate on the activities of the Society of Friends in the eastern parts of the county. The reasons for this are fairly obvious, for not only was this the region of their early strength but also the home ground of the only gentry family which joined the new sect. The contribution of the Dolobran family to industrial and financial develop- ment in the 18th century no doubt helped to focus attention on the Quakers in the Dolobran district. It is not generally realised that Quakerism lingered on in the west of our county long after it had died out in other parts, and that the centre of activity shifted in the first half of the 18th century from Dolobran to the upland farmhouse of Esgairgoch, eight miles from Llanidloes. The various groups of Friends for the most part gathered round men and women who exercised a spiritual leadership, not of authority or in virtue of any office or appointment, but a leadership accorded them by reason of the inspiration shown by their lives. This article will deal to a great extent with the story of individuals and families who played such a role in the Society in our county. The beginnings of Quakerism in the upper Severn Valley in the old division of Arwystli are most difficult to disentangle from the confusion of the years 1657-1660 when the Puritan Commonwealth was rapidly disintegrating. The situation in the parishes is most obscure and the exact relationship between former Anglican incumbents and such Commonwealth bodies as the Triers and Propagators is hard to establish. It appears that Isaac Lloyd, Vicar of Llanidloes and appointed about 1640, was unejected and indeed held two livings under the Puritan regime. That he managed to do so detracts perhaps in some measure from the value of the eulogy on his memorial tablet on the tower wall of Llanidloes Church, where he is des- cribed as a defender of English liturgy. In Trefeglwys the position is even more obscure. Until 1639 the living was held by Alexander Griffith, an uncompromising opponent of Vavasor Powell, the Bapto-Independent and Millenarian. In 1652 one Hugh Pugh, an unejected clergy- man, had been approved by the Puritans and he was followed by two Puritans, Robert Gooding and Paul Griffith.