Welsh Journals

NEWS AND NOTES SIR JOHN WILLIAMS PERSONALIA. In addition to the extensive manuscript, printed, and graphic material which forms the Sir John Williams foundation collections or which was subsequently acquired under the terms of his bequest, and which is described elsewhere in this issue, the National Library possesses an interesting group of miscellaneous articles which may be described as his personalia.' Although many of them do not fall within the sphere of material which it is the Library's legitimate duty to collect and preserve, yet because of their association with its principal founder and their value for biographical purposes it is fitting that they also should have a permanent home within its walls. A broad classification of these personalia divides them into four groups--(a) those having personal and family associations, (b) those associated with his profession, and with honours and distinctions which he gained therein and in other spheres, (c) those acquired as a result of his professional association and consequent friendship with Royalty, and (d) gifts received from other clients and friends. These groups, however, cannot be strictly separated one from another, as several of the personalia quite appropriately belong to more than one of them. In the first-the personal and family group-may be mentioned such items as Sir John's gold watch (with chain and pendants), three tie-rings, his binoculars in case, some of his diaries, his birth and marriage certificates, his deed of apprenticeship (signed by his mother and himself) to W. H. Michael, surgeon and apothecary, 1859, a photograph of his father's certificate of ordination, 1838, the family Bible from his mother's home, Bailey, Gwynfe, with a record of births, marriages, etc., his mother's hymnbook and some of her diaries, a copy of a short biography of her written by her youngest son, Nathaniel, which was published in 1898, three years after her death, a Bible presented to Lady Williams, on the occasion of her marriage, by her uncle, the Reverend Michael D. Jones of Bala, an address presented to her on the same occasion by the steel-workers in the employ of her father, Richard Hughes of Ynystawe, the patent appointing Sir John high sheriff of Carmarthenshire in 1904, and his sheriffs banners and trumpets. Sir John had also preserved certain items of correspondence with his mother and his wife which he probably regarded as of particular sentimental value. Among these is a letter in Welsh, full of moral and spiritual advice, which his mother wrote to him on his twenty-first birth- day, and letters and telegrams from himself at Windsor, Balmoral, Sandringham, and elsewhere announcing the births of various royal personages at which he was privileged to be in attendance, as well as the conferment upon him in 1902 of the honour of K.C.V.O. Among the personalia associated with his profession are a number of his medical notebooks, scales for weighing drugs, a knife and two small saws, correspondence relating to his various appointments, the University College, London, Medal for Chemistry, 1861-2, and for Anatomy and Physiology, 1862-3, the University of London Gold Medal for Pathol- ogical Anatomy, 1864-5 (a piece of which he subsequently punched out and used to make Lady Williams's wedding ring), and numerous medical diplomas, certificates, etc. Associated with other distinctions are the academic hoods of a D.Sc. (Wales), an LL.D. (Aberdeen), and an LL.D. (Glasgow), which degrees he received honoris causa, the Bronze Medal of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, and the diploma of a Corresponding Member of the Archaeological Society of France. Other personalia bear witness to the royal honours conferred upon him from time to time. These include the Letters Patent of Queen Victoria creating him a baronet in