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LLOYD family, of Dolobran, Montgomeryshire

The family of Lloyd of Dolobran, in the parish of Meifod, Montgomeryshire, has distinguished itself in the annals of the Quakers in Wales, in the iron industry, in the banking world, and in public administration in the United States and the British Empire. In common with several other Powys families they traced their descent from ALETH, king of Demetia. Tradition relates that CELYNIN AP RHIRYD fled from Demetia to Powys after slaying the mayor of Carmarthen. A Kelennyn ap Ririd was a juror in Mechain Uchcoed in 1292. The upper reaches of the pedigree are confused. Gwladys, daughter and heiress of Rhiryd ap Cynfrig Efell of Llwydiarth, is given as the wife of Rhiryd and of his son Celynin. According to Dwnn, Celynin's mother was Gwladys, daughter of Meredith ap Rhydderch, a descendant of Tewdwr Mawr. Gwenllian, daughter of Adam ap Meyrick ap Pasgen, is also given as the wife of Celynin, and of his son, EINION. This Adam ap Meyrick may have been the sinecure rector of Meifod, c. 1265. Einion was living in 1340. LLEWELYN AB EINION is named in a pardon granted by Edward de Cherleton, lord of Powys, to his grandson, Griffith ap Jenkin ap Llewelyn, in 1419, for his complicity in the war of Owain Glyn Dŵr. His widow, Lucy, daughter of Griffith ab Ednyfed Lloyd of Bromfield, was then alive. His third son, DEIO AP LLYWELYN, was the first to be associated with Dolobran. (The Vaughan family of Llwydiarth, issued from the eldest son, Jenkin). Deio's first wife was Mary, daughter of Griffith Goch of Ruyton xi Towns or of Knockyn. The Vaughans of Glasgoed issued from this marriage, and David ap Owen, abbot and bishop, was a grandson of these two. IEUAN TEG AP DEIO, son of the second wife, Meddefus, daughter, or sister, of Griffith Vaughan of Deytheur, and possibly the widow of David Aber, inherited Dolobran. He married Maud, daughter of Evan Blayney of Tregynon (a burgess of Welshpool, 1406). OWEN HIR AB IEUAN TEG married Catherine, daughter of Reginald, son of Sir Griffith Vaughan of Guilsfield who was murdered in the Red Castle in 1447. IEUAN or IEUAN LLOYD AB OWEN married Gwenhwyvar, daughter of Meredith Lloyd of Meifod. John Wyn of Dyffryn was his brother.

The surname Lloyd was established in the next generation with DAVID LLOYD AB IEUAN AP OWEN (a juror in Montgomeryshire, 1542). 1523 is given as the year of his birth, but it is difficult to reconcile this with the eulogy which William Llŷn addressed to him and his wife, Eve, daughter of Edward ap Rees of Eglwyseg, where it is suggested that they were in the yellow leaf. This poem is placed in 1562, though it is possible that such an early date cannot be substantiated. Simwnt Vychan also sang the praises of these two. It is also said that he was married to Marred, daughter of Ieuan Davydd Goch, but she is more likely to have been a concubine. The heir was the poet David ap David Lloyd, a juror in Montgomeryshire from 1576 to 1594, otherwise known as Dafydd ap Dafydd Llwyd. His son JOHN LLOYD (born 1575) was also a poet. He lived at Coedcowryd, and his first wife was his second cousin, Catherine, daughter of Humphrey ap John Wyn of Dyffryn, but the wife named in his will was Elizabeth. The will was proved in 1636, and his name was taken off the roll of Montgomeryshire jurors in 1638. His heir CHARLES LLOYD (I) was born in 1613. He enlarged the house at Dolobran and married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Stanley of Knockyn, who is stated to have been an authority on genealogy. He died comparatively young, and was buried at Meifod 17 August 1657, leaving three sons, CHARLES (born 9 December 1637), JOHN (born 1638), and THOMAS (born 17 February 1640), who are said to have been educated at Jesus College, Oxford, and to have studied medicine, but Foster's evidence is inconclusive. We have Charles Lloyd's own statement that he and his brother Thomas were at Oxford, and Richard Davies the Quaker stated that both brothers left because they were tired of the persecution of Quakers there. John turned his attention to law and was one of the Six Clerks of Chancery. He married Jane Gresham, a descendant of Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal Exchange, and remained a loyal churchman, presenting communion plate to Meifod church. Charles Lloyd (II) joined the Quakers in 1662, and was one of the group imprisoned at Welshpool in that year. His wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sampson Lort followed him to prison. He was allowed to take a house in Welshpool about 1663 at the supplication of Richard Davies and his own brother Thomas Lloyd, who had by this time become a Quaker. He and his friends were released under the Declaration of Indulgence, 1672. He returned to Dolobran where he extended the house and built a meeting house for Quakers. In 1681 he and his brother Thomas took part in a disputation with William Lloyd, bishop of St Asaph, and other clergy. In 1682 he visited Quakers in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and placed the cause of the Bristol Quakers before Sir Leoline Jenkins. He married Ann Lawrence in 1686, his first wife having died in 1685 (buried at Cloddiau Cochion). He died at the house of his daughter Elizabeth Pemberton in Birmingham in 1698, and his widow, in 1708. They were buried in the Bull Street cemetery in that city. See a MS. Memoir of her father, Charles II, by Elizabeth Pemberton at Friends' House, London. A letter by him concerning a discussion between his brother and Morgan Jones on the alleged discovery of America by the Welsh was printed in N. Owen's British Remains (1777). Together with one Margaret Davies he had purchased a share of 5,000 acres in Pennsylvania from William Penn in 1684. His brother Thomas Lloyd, who was a preacher with the Quakers, and who suffered imprisonment at Welshpool from 1664 to 1672, emigrated. After his release Thomas had lived at Maes-mawr, near Welshpool, suffering persecution and fines. In 1683 he took his wife, a daughter of Gilbert Jones of Welshpool, and family to Pennsylvania. She was the first to be buried in the Arch Street cemetery in Philadelphia. He was made president of the provincial council in 1684 and was deputy-governor for Pennsylvania from William Penn until 1693, when the province was taken over by the Crown. He opposed the introduction of a militia into the province, and was the most powerful and popular leader in Pennsylvania in his period. He died in 1694, and was buried at Philadelphia. Two pamphlets by him have been published: An epistle to my Dear and well beloved Friends of Dolobran, 1788, and A Letter to John Eccles and Wife, 1805. David Lloyd (born at Manafon about 1656; died at Chester, Pennsylvania, 1731), chief justice of Pennsylvania, was a relative, but the exact degree is not known. A David Lloyd revised A Salutation to the Britains, Philadelphia, 1727, a translation by Rowland Ellis of Ellis Pugh's Annerch ir Cymru.

Charles Lloyd (II) left two sons, Charles (born 1662) and Sampson (born 1664). CHARLES LLOYD (III) married Sarah, daughter of Ambrose Crowley, in 1693. He further enlarged the house at Dolobran, and established an iron forge on his estate, but, before 1733, removed to Birmingham, where his brother, SAMPSON LLOYD (died 1724), had been engaged in the iron industry. He was buried there in 1747 or 1749. His son CHARLES LLOYD (IV), who was born in 1697, maintained connection with Dolobran, though the estate was heavily mortgaged, his father having lost thousands of pounds in his industrial ventures. His wife was Jane Wilkins. One of their daughters, Jane (born 1728), married Lewis Owen of Tyddyn-y-garreg, a member of an old Welsh Quaker family - see the article on the family. The heir, CHARLES EXTON LLOYD (1726 - 1773), died unmarried, in France, and his brother, JAMES LLOYD (1740 - 1787), who also died unmarried, sold the estate.

The main line was now represented by the descendants of Sampson Lloyd, second son of Charles Lloyd (II). This is not the place to follow their interesting contacts with religious, humanitarian, and mercantile movements in Birmingham and London. (See Rachel J. Lowe, Farm and its Inhabitants , 1883, for a record of the family's activity in religious and literary circles; Charles Lloyd the poet was one of them; in the iron industry, in the banking ventures now represented by Lloyds Bank, in the movement for the abolition of slavery, etc.). At the end of a century of alienation they resumed ownership of the ancient patrimony. Dolobran and the old meeting house were bought by SAMPSON SAMUEL LLOYD in 1877 and another member of the family, HENRY LLOYD, had bought Lower Dolobran and Coedcowryd in 1872-3. GEORGE AMBROSE LLOYD (1879 - 1941), first baron Lloyd of Dolobran, was the second son of Sampson Samuel Lloyd, the heir of the purchaser of Dolobran.

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Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/

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