LLOYD, MEREDITH (fl. 1655-1677), lawyer and antiquary

He was a native of Welshpool and a kinsman of Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt. He was himself a collector of manuscripts, and is said to have been the owner of the manuscripts of Thomas Wiliems of Trefriw, which he presented to Robert Vaughan. The authority for this statement is the author of the catalogue of the Hengwrt library in Cambrian Register, iii, who cites letters and papers which he had received from a descendant of Lloyd, 'a gentleman of Radnorshire.' He also owned the ' Vita Sancti Cadoci' (Peniarth MS 385 ), which he lent to Vaughan, who made a transcript of it (Peniarth MS 275 ), but which the latter either neglected to return or later received as a gift. Letters between Lloyd and Vaughan during the year 1655 have been printed in the Cambrian Register, iii, 301-2, 310-2, and The Cambro-Briton, i, 410-5; there are also two important letters, one written in 1655, and the other in 1658, bound with Peniarth MS 275 . This correspondence shows that Vaughan held Lloyd in high esteem and frequently consulted him about his researches. It was he who was entrusted with the negotiations for securing a loan for his friend of the 'Liber Landavensis' from Sir John Vaughan of Trawsgoed in 1655. Vaughan had a high opinion of Lloyd's scholarship and urged him to undertake a study of the Old Welsh laws, for which he was admirably equipped by his legal training and his knowledge of Old Welsh. Another of Lloyd's intimates was the famous copyist, John Jones of Gellilyfdy (1578? - 1658?), whom he visited at the Fleet prison. Among the Wynnstay MSS. in the National Library of Wales there is an interesting letter (C. 102) written in 1677 from Lloyd to a kinsman, William Maurice of Llansilin, the famous antiquary, in which he discusses the contents of the Hengwrt library, and urges its sale to William Williams (1634 - 1700), afterwards known as 'Speaker Williams.'

Robert Owen, in his Short Historical Sketch of Welshpool, suggests that the subject of this article was the Meredith Lloyd of Brynellin, whose name appears among the list of the burgesses of Welshpool, printed in Mont. Coll., xii, 328, and that he was a descendant of the noble clan of Neuadd-wen. But no evidence to support these claims has been traced.

Author

• Walter Thomas Morgan, (1912 - 1990)

Sources

• R. Williams, Montgomeryshire Worthies (1894)
• Handlist of Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales, I, xvi, xx; see also references given in the body of the article

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20733909

Published date: 1959

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