BOLD, HUGH (1731 - 1809), lawyer, of Brecon

The Bold's appear to have been blacksmiths who lived and worked in a village outside Brecon, and the father of Hugh Bold was ' trumpeter to the Corporation of Brecon.' Hugh Bold became a lawyer's clerk at the Brecon office of John Philipps (of Tre-gaer near Llanfrynach - see Theophilus Jones, IV, 37), married his employer's daughter, and eventually succeeded him in the business. In this way he rose from humble beginnings to become a very prominent man in the affairs of the borough (four times bailiff), and was attorney for the Cyfarthfa and other iron-works in the early days of the industrial revolution.

He was also a pillar of Wesleyan Methodism in Brecon; as steward of Wesley's Society he frustrated lady Huntingdon's attempt at monopolizing the first Methodist chapel there (c. 1771). John Wesley wrote of him: 'I know no attorney to be depended on like him'; and the Moravian Benjamin La Trobe speaks of him with great respect.

He married twice. His first wife, Elizabeth, died 31 October 1781; and from this marriage the later Bolds of the shire are descended - see the history of the family by David Verey in Brycheiniog, 1960. He married, c. 1782, Dorothy, daughter of his old master John Philipps (many years after her father's death in 1763); Dorothy died in 1806 (Theophilus Jones, II, 95).

He died 10 February 1809; his descendants have occupied high positions in the borough and the shire.

Author

• Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Sources

• Theophilus Jones, Edwin Davies, Joseph Russell Bailey, History of the County of Brecknock (1909-1930), iv, 307, ii, 95
• D. Young, The Origin and History of Methodism in Wales and the Borders (1893), 135
• T. Richards (ed.), Er Clod Saith Bennod ar Hanes Methodistiaeth yng Nghymru1934, 62-3
• R. T. Jenkins, 'John Hughes o Aberhonddu, 1775-1843', Bathafarn: cylchgrawn hanes yr Eglwys Fethodistaidd yng Nghymru, Vol. v, (1950), p.16
• David Verey, 'The families of Wynter and Bold', Brycheiniog, Vol. 6 (1960), pp.67-73 (contains photographs and a family tree)
• footnote on page 76 of the article 'John Hughes the Antiquary (1776-1843)' by R. T. Jenkins, Brycheiniog, Vol. 8 (1962), pp.67-82
• correspondence with David Verey

Further Reading

• Old Wales a monthly magazine of antiquities for Wales and the Borders (Australia 1905-1907), Vol. II, p.344, Vol. III, pp.55-56
• Wikipedia Article: Hugh Bold

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20733183

Published date: 1959

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