LLOYD, JOHN (1833 - 1915), political reformer and antiquary

Descended from the Lloyd of Dinas (Brecon) family, whose original seat was at another Dinas, in the parish of Llanwrtyd. A member of this family, JOHN LLOYD (1748 - 1818), entered the service of the East India Company, fought against Tipu Sahib, and made a large fortune, out of which he bought the Abercynrig estate outside Brecon. His eldest son, JOHN LLOYD (born at Brecon 3 June 1797, died 15 December 1875), was at Eton and Balliol; he was something of a figure in the eisteddfodau of his day, and published a volume of Latin and English poems (1847, 2nd ed. 1875); it was he who built the present (Brecon) mansion of Dinas. This Lloyd's youngest son, John Lloyd, the subject of the present notice, was born at Dinas 3 September 1833, and educated at Bridgnorth and S. John's, Oxford. He left college without graduating and for a while managed the family estate; in 1865 he was made J.P., and in the same year married a great-granddaughter of David Griffith (1726 - 1816); he was then a notable sportsman. In 1877, however, he was called to the Bar and settled in London, where he engaged in much public activity. He became secretary of the 'London Municipal Reform Association,' whose struggle with the City Corporation paved the way for the establishment of the London County Council (of which Lloyd became a member); in Brecknock, he agitated for the removal of turnpike gates, and championed the cause of the commoners of the Great Forest of Brecknock. A copious pamphleteer and versifier, he warmly espoused the cause of Gladstone against Chamberlain. But his main claim to inclusion here is his very valuable work as an antiquary. Involved in disputes on manorial rights and ancient customs, he had formed a good collection of historical documents; and he also rescued a mass of papers from the office of Henry Maybery, a Brecon attorney much concerned in the affairs of some of the early South Wales ironmasters, treasurer of the county, and deputy-registrar of the consistory court. Lloyd published a good deal of record material in his three main works, Historical Memoranda of Breconshire (Brecon, two vols., 1903, 1904), The Great Forest of Brecknock (London, 1905), and The Early History of the Old South Wales Ironworks (London, 1906). He died 6 June 1915.

Author

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

Sources

• Theophilus Jones, Edwin Davies, Joseph Russell Bailey, History of the County of Brecknock (1909-1930), ii, 214-5, iv, 179-81
• Edwin Davies, in the Brecon & Radnor County Times, 12 September 1912
• information from Sir John Lloyd of Dinas, and Mr. W. T. Morgan of N.L.W.

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: John Lloyd

Additional Links

• VIAF: 3538150264374405860007
• Wikidata: Q6245044

Published date: 1959

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