ROBERTS, JOHN ASKEW (1826 - 1884), antiquary, journalist, and author

Born 27 March 1826 at Oswestry, son of Samuel Roberts, bookseller. In 1848 he was one of the contributors to Oswald's Well, an Oswestry magazine, which was succeeded in 1849 by the Oswestry Advertiser, a monthly journal which afterwards became a weekly newspaper, and with which the founder was connected for the next twenty years. Selling the copyright and retiring from active participation in the editorial work of that paper, he nevertheless kept up his connection with it, by occasional contributions, until 1871 when he began the publication of the antiquarian column called Bye-Gones with which - for it appeared over a long period in quarterly reprints - his name has become inseparably connected. One of the most constant contributors to Bye-Gones was W. W. E. Wynne, Peniarth, with whom Roberts collaborated in bringing out the 1878 edition of Sir John Wynn's The history of the Gwydir family . He also published Contributions to Oswestry History, 1881; Wynnstay and the Wynns , 1876; and, a work which had a very large circulation - The Gossiping Guide to Wales. He also made contributions to the publications of the Shropshire Archaeological Society and the Powysland Club. Besides the Advertiser, Roberts founded (1860) The Merionethshire Standard, now known as The Cambrian News. He was also joint-editor, with Edward Woodall, of The Pictorial Itinerary, an Illustrated Guide to the Railways and Coach-Roads of North Wales (Oswestry, 1882). He died 10 December 1884.

Author

• Sir William Llewelyn Davies, (1887 - 1952)

Sources

• Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1885, 75-6
• Bye-Gones, relating to Wales and the Border Counties, 1884, 146, 151, 184, 267, and 1885, 267

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20733352

Published date: 1959

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