Welsh Journals

Rhydderch and the Life of Gruffydd ap Cynan were produced.3 This abbey also has a unique place in the history of printing in Wales in that the first known piece of printed material relating to the country was published here. It was a Form of Indulgence issued by the Abbot in 1528.4 The main purpose of the Indulgence, probably printed in London by Richard Pynson, was to procure funds for the abbey which had fallen upon hard times.5 Only two copies of this document have been located and it is the only pre-Reformation printed document directly relating to Wales that is known to exist.6 The close proximity of Shrewsbury, where books had been printed since 1696,7 and Oswestry which had a printing press in 1788,8 probably accounts for the late arrival of the craft of printing in Welshpool. JOHN WAIDSON, 1778-1850 There is some doubt as to who was the first printer at Welshpool. Pryce Owen is said to have founded his Owen's press and library in 1795,9 but if he did any printing during the first years after setting up his press, not one example of his work before 1808 is known to have survived. The earliest example of printing executed at Welshpool which exists is An exposition of the ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans by John Fletcher, printed by John Waidson in 1805. In 1808 he also printed a broadsheet10 entitled A calendar of misdemeanor prisoners, now in the custody of John Davies, Keeper of His Majesty's Gaol for the said County of Montgomery the 2nd day of April, 1808 Pool, Waidson, Printer, 1808 3 Davies, J. A. Education in a Welsh rural county, 1870-1973. Cardiff, University of Wales Press, 1973. p. xv. Jones, E. D. A form of Indulgence issued by the Abbey of Strata Marcella, (1958). National Library of Wales Journal, vol. 14, 1965-66. p. 246. 5 Owen, E. Strata Marcella Abbey immediately before and after its dissolution. Y Cymmrodor, vol. 29, 1919. p. 2. Jones, E. D. op. cit. 7 Lloyd, Ll. C. The book trade in Shropshire. Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society, vol. 48, 1935-36. p. 85. 8 ibid. 9 Payne, H. Account for 1839. Paynes's Welshpool Almanack, 1913. Welshpool, R. & M. Owen, 1912. A copy of this broadsheet is to be seen in the Montgomeryshire Quarter Sessions Records (Q.S. 1808-1810) deposited at the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth.