THOMAS, GEORGE (1786 - 1859), writer of mock-heroic and satiric verse dealing with events in Montgomeryshire
Date of birth: 1786
Date of death: 1859
Parent: Margaret Thomas (née Davies)
Parent: James Thomas
Gender: Male
Occupation: writer of mock-heroic and satiric verse dealing with events in Montgomeryshire
Area of activity: Poetry
Authors: John Davies Knatchbull Lloyd, Frazer Thomas
Born c. 1786 in Wollerton in the parish of Hodnet, Shropshire, the son of James Thomas, a wool stapler and his wife Margaret (Davies), who married at Berriew, Montgomeryshire in 1788. They moved to Newtown the following year - James is described as a flannel manufacturer - and then to Shrewsbury and to Welshpool. George received some education at Park's school, Shrewsbury, assisted his father in business at Welshpool, and set up a corn-grinding business in the same town. He took over the tenancy of the Abbot's Mill at Trelydan near Guilsfield in 1811 where he was said to have been the last miller.
He was clerk to the families of Newtown Hall and Cilgwrgan (Abermule), and also clerk to the Forden House of Industry (the Montgomery and Pool House of Industry) from c. 1820 until c. 1840. Eventually he was for many years schoolmaster and postmaster at Llandysil, Montgomeryshire, where he married in 1816 and where his first child was born in 1818. Between 1826 and 1841 he was living at Bank Farm but by 1846 he was again living in the village where he died 30 August 1859 aged 73.
His chief works are: (a) The otter hunt and the death of Roman, a well-known hound (Welshpool, 1817); (b) The Welsh flannel (of which there were six editions); (c) History of the Chartists and the Bloodless Wars of Montgomeryshire (including ' History of Toolly Loolly,' ' Battle of Abermule,' ' Battle of Heniarth,' ' Battle of Caersws,' and ' Battle of Newtown and Llanidloes,' 1840; these last satirized the Yeomanry; (d) The death of Rowton (a Llandysil eccentric); and (e) The Extinction of the Mormons.
Authors
- John Davies Knatchbull Lloyd
- Frazer Thomas
- R. Williams, Montgomeryshire Worthies (1894)
- J. D. K. Lloyd, The Lloyds of Montgomery, Montgomeryshire collections: relating to Montgomeryshire and its borders, Vol. xlix, p.257 (with portrait of him as huntsman)
Sources
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/
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