Saints in Llandeilo’r Fan
by
Kyle Williams
Ephesians 2:19 KJV
Some people might recognize only one
saint in Llandeilo’r Fan – the Celtic St. Teilo, the namesake of the church,
the village and the parish. But that’s not what I’m writing about. I’m more interested
in my ancestors, the Latter-day Saints. They were early members of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Mormons or LDS.
One Latter-day Saint in Llandeilo’r
Fan was Samuel Daniel Williams. He was born in 1826, a son of Daniel Williams
and Ruth Jones. Because his parents were my great-great-great grandparents,
I’ll take the liberty of calling him Uncle Samuel. One of Uncle Samuel’s
biographies includes this family legend:
He embraced the gospel when a young,
single man. Aunt Margaret Passey wrote in a history that “when he was 14 he and
a group of other boys heard about some missionaries coming to their town and
they would hold a street meeting. These boys decided it would be fun to go and
cause a disturbance by pounding on their hard high silk hats. As the meeting
progressed, grandfather became interested in what they were saying and wanted
to hear more so he moved away from the group and went to the front. He liked
what they had to say and attended many of their meetings. He had one problem,
this same group of boys used to lie in wait for him to get out of a meeting and
then chase him home. But grandfather said if he could get a minute head start
he could outrun them. Several years later he was baptized on November 10, 1848 by Johnathan J. Thomas.”
If this legend is true, Samuel Daniel Williams would
have been the first of my Welsh relatives to become acquainted with the
Latter-day Saints. However, my experience as a genealogist has taught me to
take family legends with a grain of salt. This story is no exception. Uncle
Samuel was age 14 in 1840-1841. The legend implies that Latter-day-Saint
missionaries not only preached in the streets of Llandeilo’r Fan in 1840-1841,
but held “many” meetings there.
Possible? Yes. Probable? No.
Some zealous Mormons may have
preached in Wales without being formally called to the task, but the first
official missionaries to Wales were Henry Royle, Frederick Cook, James Burnham
and James Burgess. They went to Flintshire in October 1840 and established a
branch at Overton. By April 1841 the Overton Branch included 170 Latter-day
Saints. Overton, however, was in North Wales, far away from Llandeilo’r Fan.
In South Wales, James Palmer, Martin
Littlewood, James Morgan and others preached in Skenfrith as early as November
1840. From Skenfrith they moved to Monmouth. In February 1841 James Palmer
crossed the Black Mountains to Llanthony and Longtown. For two years the
missionaries labored in the border towns of South Wales. Llandeilo’r Fan,
located on the west side of Brecknockshire, can hardly be characterized as a
border town.
Early in 1843 William Henshaw
preached in Pen-y-Darren, near Merthyr Tydfil. Before the end of the year, the
Pen-y-Darren Branch grew to 50 Saints, and another branch was organized in
nearby Rhymni. In March 1844 the Saints in the Merthyr Tydfil area numbered
just over 100. In April 1844 William Henshaw presided over eight branches in
the Merthyr Tydfil Conference: Beaufort, Tredegar, Merthyr Tydfil, Aberdare,
Abersychan, Pen-y-Darren, Rhymni and Abergavenny.
It wasn’t until 1844, the year
Joseph Smith died in Illinois, that the LDS missionaries in South Wales began
to expand outside Monmouth and Glamorgan counties. By November 1844, they were
preaching as far away as Carmarthen. Considering the general pattern of the
spread of Mormonism in Wales, I think it unlikely that the Latter-day Saints
held meetings in Llandeilo’r Fan prior to 1844.
The late 1840’s and early 1850’s witnessed
a great explosion of Latter-day Saint activity in Wales. Under the leadership
of the legendary Captain Dan Jones, the membership expanded from about 500 at
the end of 1845 (most of them in the Merthyr Tydfil area) to a peak of 5,244 in
1853. From that time the membership declined because many of the Latter-day
Saints emigrated to America. I believe it was during the boom of the late
1840’s that LDS missionaries first preached in Llandeilo’r Fan.
Specifically, I believe the first
LDS missionary in Llandeilo’r Fan was Uncle Samuel’s brother-in-law, John Evan
Price. On May 29, 1841, John Evan Price married Ruth Williams, daughter of
Daniel Williams and Ruth Jones. Uncle John and Aunt Ruth moved out of
Llandeilo’r Fan in 1841 or 1842.
It was in Brynmawr that Uncle John
had his first contact with the Latter-day Saints. Elders William Hughes of Merthyr Tydfil and Thomas Pugh of Cwmavon preached to him. When Uncle John moved to
Cwmamman, Carmarthenshire, Elders John Griffiths and James Phillips taught him.
John Griffiths baptized him on September 26, 1847 in Cwmamman. His wife, Aunt
Ruth, was baptized on October 17, 1847. I believe they were the first of my
Brecknockshire relatives to convert to the LDS Church.
Uncle John’s autobiography indicates that early in
1848 (February, March or April), he and his missionary companion started
walking from Cwmamman with the objective of introducing the LDS gospel to their
loved ones in Llandeilo’r Fan:
David Williams and myself
commenced our way to Brecknockshire to testify the truth of the gospel to our
relatives. After we crossed the Black Mountain we went to Pont-ar-llechau where
brother Griffith Jones lived. There we hoped to rest and eat our lunch which we
had with us. David Williams was whipped and dragged through the mud and mud
thrown on him with Griffith Jones's wife, for our being Latter-day Saints. We
went from there on Saturday night to my aunt's house. She was my father's
sister and lived at Gellirhydd. We preached here Sunday at 3 p.m. and there were hundreds of people hearing us. At 6 p.m. we preached in Gellirhydd at the home
of Thomas Davis. It was filled with people. On Monday we went to Llandeilo’r Fan
to my father-in-law's house. We were there all day trying to convince them the
truth of Mormonism.
We preached Monday night in David P.
Davis' house and there were a great many of the old Methodist brethren present
listening attentively. On Tuesday morning we baptized my mother-in-law and her
son Daniel. We had 35 miles to walk to this place. We gave and sold a great
many books on our journey.
We returned from this place to
Trecastle to see brother Jonathan J. Thomas and family. We went from this place
over the country and mountains offering books in every home. We tried to visit
every house we could see.
I conclude that in 1847 Uncle John Evan Price became
the first of my Brecknockshire relatives to discover the Latter-day Saints. I
further conclude that in 1848 my great-great-great grandmother Ruth Jones
Williams and her son Daniel Williams, Jr., became the first LDS converts in
Llandeilo’r Fan.
What shall I do, then, with the legend of Uncle
Samuel? It’s a wonderful story, and I don’t want to discard it entirely. There
are several possibilities for rescuing the story’s integrity:
Maybe the street preachers were not Mormons, but from
some other sect. In that case, the story relates Uncle Samuel’s awakening to
Christianity in general, not the LDS Church in particular.
Maybe Uncle Samuel spent some time outside of
Llandeilo’r Fan, where the Latter-day Saints held regular meetings. It was
common in Wales for children to leave their parents’ home and work as servants
elsewhere. Uncle Samuel, however, was in Llandeilo’r Fan when the 1841 census
was taken.
Maybe Uncle Samuel was in his early twenties when he heckled
the Mormon missionaries, but the story loses some charm when the pranksters should
have outgrown such juvenile behavior.
Maybe Uncle Samuel was not the fourteen-year-old in
the story, but the preacher who endured such treatment. According to the 1851
Census of Llandeilo’r Fan, Samuel Williams’ occupation was “Laterday Saints
Preacher.”
Or maybe, just maybe, the story is entirely true. Not
every movement of every missionary was recorded. It’s possible that some LDS
missionaries held “many” meetings in Llandeilo’r Fan as early as 1840-1841. But
I have my doubts, and I think my skepticism is warranted. It seems more likely
that the story has been passed to us in a slightly garbled manner.
This is not to accuse anyone of dishonesty. In our
confusing world, many stories get distorted in all innocence and good
intention. I wholeheartedly thank Cousin Margaret Passey for preserving the
story.
*
In the shadow of Saint Teilo’s Church, other Saints
have walked. The first were John Evan Price and David Williams, his companion. John
Evan Price had left Llandeilo’r Fan an ordinary Christian. He returned a Saint.
The next Saints in Llandeilo’r Fan were Ruth Jones Williams and Daniel
Williams, her son. From this humble beginning, the Latter-day Saints increased
in Llandeilo’r Fan until they packed their bags and moved to America.
NOTES
Llandeilo’r Fan may be translated The Place of Teilo’s Church.
Some sources say Samuel
Daniel Williams was born April 10, 1826. Others say August 10, 1826. At present, I don’t have enough information to judge which is correct.
The biography of Samuel
Daniel Williams which contains the passage about the fourteen-year-old heckler
was: “Compiled by Robert C. Stephens (Great-Grandson) with contributions from
histories by Mary Ann Williams Jenkins (Daughter). Earl J. Thomas
(Great-Grandson) and Margaret Caldwell Passey (Grand-Daughter). The book, The
Samaritans, as found in the Family History Department of the LDS Church is another source of history concerning this family.” See the entire biography
at http://www.welshmormonhistory.org/index.php?/resources/view/1557.
I borrowed heavily from
Ronald D. Dennis for the information on Mormonism in Wales. He generously gave
me his permission to do so. See:
“The Beginnings
of Mormonism in North Wales” by Ronald D. Dennis
http://www.welshmormonhistory.org/index.php?/resources/view/2389
“The Welsh and
the Gospel” by Ronald D. Dennis
http://www.welshmormonhistory.org/index.php?/resources/view/2618
The above passage from John
Evan Price’s autobiography is actually a combination of his diary and his
autobiography, which I have freely edited and corrected. I know of three
interdependent sources of information about John Evan Price. His biography is on
pages 44-47 of The Samaritans, compiled and edited by Raymond R. Martin
and Esther Jenkins Carpenter, published 1968 by Carr Printing Co., Bountiful,
Utah. This biography is also on the Internet at http://www.welshmormonhistory.org/index.php?/resources/view/688.
In addition, John Evan Price’s autobiography is at
http://www.welshmormonhistory.org/index.php?/resources/view/974. His diary
is at: http://www.welshmormonhistory.org/index.php?/resources/view/209.
His photograph is at http://www.welshmormonhistory.org/index.php?/resources/view/1244.
Cwmamman, Carmarthenshire, is
not found on every modern map. Searching for it, I found this note on the
Internet at http://www.breconbeacons.org/content/geopark/community-pages/cwmamman/?searchterm=Ammanford:
“Cwmamman / The south-western corner of the Geopark / The main settlements within
the community lie along the Amman and comprise Glanaman and Garnant together
with Twynmynydd. Much of the rest of the settlement within Cwmamman is
dispersed.”
Black Mountain,
crossed by John Evan Price, is in Carmarthenshire between Cwmamman and
Pont-ar-llechau. It is not to be confused with the Black Mountains, which are
in eastern Brecknockshire.
There is some confusion of
place names in the autobiography and diary of John Evan Price. The confusion
may arise from Uncle John’s creative spelling, his poor handwriting, or the
transcriber’s limited knowledge of obscure Welsh place names. I have corrected
the place names to the best of my ability. Feel free to check my conclusions,
and please let me know what you discover. The originals are lost, but we have
two different transcriptions in the form of his autobiography and his diary
(references above). The most difficult task was figuring out what was meant by
Gllynth / Gellyrith / Gillingwearth / Gilligwecrith. I believe these are all
the same place: Gellirhydd, a farm in Llanfair-ar-y-bryn parish,
Carmarthenshire. According to John Evan Price, it was the home of David Thomas
in 1848, and also the home of a sister of Uncle John’s father, Evan Price. According
to information on familysearch.com, the daughters of Evan and Esther Price were:
Elinor Price Morgan (1785), wife of David Morgan; Eliza Price Pugh (born 1786),
wife of Roger Pugh; Ann Price (1789); Catherine Price Powell (1789), wife of
Rowland Powell; Elinor Price (1795); and Esther Price Price (1801-1822), wife
of Thomas Price. I suggest that the first step in verifying the place is to
check the 1841 and 1851 census records to see if any of these people lived at Gellirhydd
farm.
The 1841 and 1851 censuses of
Llandeilo’r Fan show several people named David Davies. Those who were old
enough to own a house in 1848 were:
David Davies 1841: age
70, Pant-mawr 1851: age 81, Mynydd-bach
David Davies 1851:
age 37, Tir-bach
David Davies 1841: age
20, Pentre-bach
David Davies 1841: age
15, Gelli-gaeth
David Davies [Gelli-gaeth
/ Brunant] 1851: age 25, Ty-newydd
David Davies 1841: age
14, Brunant
David Davies 1841: age
10, Crofte
I favor Tir-bach as the place
where John Evan Price preached to “the old Methodist brethren.” In 1857, Babell
Methodist chapel was built beside Tir-bach. It seems perfectly consistent,
then, for a Methodist congregation to meet at the Tir-bach house before the
chapel was built.
The places mentioned in this
article are:
Place OS
Grid County
Aberdare 300400,202500 Glamorgan
Abergavenny 329700,214400 Monmouth
Abersychan 326500,203500 Monmouth
Beaufort 317200,211500 Brecknock/Monmouth
Brynmawr 319200,211600 Brecknock
Carmarthen 241300,220000 Carmarthen
Cwmamman 267500,213500 Carmarthen
Cwmavon 327200,206200 Monmouth
Gellirhydd 282500,236200 Carmarthen
Llandeilo’r Fan 289600,234700 Brecknock
Llanthony 328800,227800 Monmouth/Hereford
Longtown 332200,228900 Monmouth/Hereford
Merthyr Tydfil 305500,206500 Glamorgan
Monmouth 350900,213600 Monmouth
Overton 337400,341900 Flintshire
Pont-ar-llechau 272900,224400 Carmarthen
Pen-y-Darren 305300,207400 Glamorgan
Rhymni 311200,208000 Monmouth
Skenfrith 345600,220300 Monmouth
Trecastle 288000,229200 Brecknock
Tredegar 314200,209200 Monmouth
The 1841 Census of
Llandeilo’r Fan shows the following on neighboring farms:
Hirllwyn John Price 20
Agricultural Lab. [John Evan Price]
Ruth
Price 25 [Ruth Williams Price]
Brinmelin Daniel
Williams 55 Farmer [My g-g-g-grandfather]
Ruth
Williams 60 [My g-g-g-grandmother]
Mary
Williams 20 [Mary Williams Davis]
Samuel
Williams 15 [Samuel Daniel Williams]
Roderick
Williams 35 [Firstborn child of Daniel & Ruth]
Ann
Williams 30 [Ann Price, Roderick’s wife]
John
Williams 17 [My g-g-grandfather]
The 1851 Census of
Llandeilo’r Fan shows the following:
Brinmelin Daniel
Williams head 68 Farmer of 94 acres
Ruth
Williams wife 71 Farmer’s wife
Samuel
Williams son 24 Laterday Saints Preacher [sic]
John
Williams g-son 9 Errand boy [son of Daniel Williams, Jr.]
Esther
Price g-daur 8 Errand girl [daughter of John Evan Price]
Thanks to Ronald D. Dennis
and Celia Morgan for their fine work and cooperation. I stand on the shoulders
of giants.
Kyle D Williams
22 January 2008
Woodbury, Tennessee
