Welsh Journals

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AN ATLANTIC VOYAGE IN 1848 IORWERTH C. PEATE Some years ago, a cousin (Richard E. Pate*of Denver, Colorado) while on a visit to this country brought me a manuscript volume written by his grand- father, Morris Peat (my grandfather's brother), of Brynderwen and Ty'n- reithin, Llanbryn-Mair, who had emigrated to the United States of America in 1848. Morris Peat belonged to a generation of monoglot Welsh speakers and naturally the volume had been written in Welsh. My cousin wished to have a translation, and this I undertook on the condition that the original volume should be deposited in the National Library of Wales, where it is now. In the translation, I omitted considerable portions of theological material, synopses of sermons, sermon texts, etc. The translated parts give a brief account of a visit by Morris Peat to London in 1844, and a detailed com- mentary on his voyage, from the 20th April to the 17th June, 1848, to Ebens- burg in the U.S.A. He was accompanied by his wife Lowri (= Laura) and a number of Llanbryn-Mair folk, and others, including Michael Daniel Jones (1822-98). Michael D. Jones was then twenty-six years of age, a native of Llanuwchllyn, Merioneth, where his father had been Independent minister; he had completed his academic training at the Carmarthen Presbyterian College and Highbury College, London. Later, in December 1848 he was to be ordained "as an evangelist" in Cincinnati, Ohio, for the Welsh immigrants in America's far west. It was here that he developed ideas for a "New Wales" which in later years fructified into his conception of a Welsh colony in Pata- gonia. He returned to Wales in 1850 to become Independent minister first of churches in Carmarthenshire and then on his father's death, he succeeded him as Principal of Bala Independent College and minister of Independent churches in Bala and the surrounding district. More than any other person, he was the father of what has been described as "a vigorous practical Welsh national- ism". Michael D. Jones's presence on board ship with a Llanbryn-Mair contingent is not remarkable. His mother was Mary Hughes (b. 1786) of Cwmcarnedd- isaf, Llanbryn-Mair, a close relative of Ezekiel Hughes, the Llanbryn-Mair In the late 1850's a final-e was added to our family name Peat. "Peat(e)" in the local speech was welshified into "Pet", cf. neat > net, seat > set, etc. In the U.S.A., the Llanbryn-Mair speech-form Pit (- Pate) was adopted in the written language.