Author: Llwyd, Richard
Biography:
LLWYD, Richard (1752-1835: ODNB)
His name is sometimes given as Lloyd in public records but he preferred the Welsh spelling. He was born at King’s Head, Beaumaris, Anglesey, Wales, to John Llwyd (d 1763?) and his wife Alice. He was baptised in Beaumaris on 7 Apr. 1752 (given as 1751 in the church records). His father, a coastal trader, died of smallpox at Warrington, Lancaster. The family’s urgent financial needs led to Llwyd’s education at the free school in Beaumaris being cut short when he entered domestic service at the age of twelve. He became a secretary and steward to a magistrate, Ralph Griffith of Caerhun near Conwy. Griffith died in 1795 and likely that is when Llwyd returned to Beaumaris to pursue his literary, genealogical, and antiquarian interests. He assisted two Welsh bards, Jonathan Hughes (1721-1805) and David Thomas (1760-1822), with their successful applications to the RLF. In 1804-7 he raised money to erect a memorial tablet to David Hughes (1561?-1610), founder of the Beaumaris free school. Llwyd moved to Chester in 1807 and in 1808 he went to London to read in the BM. There he met other historians: Sharon Turner, Richard Fenton, and William Owen Pughe (qq.v.). Llwyd married Anne Bingley (d 1834) at St. John the Baptist church, Chester, on 5 May 1814; the marriage record identifies him as “gentleman.” In 1824 he was made an honorary member of the London Cymmrodorion Society. Llwyd died at home at Bank Place in Chester on 29 Dec. 1834 and was buried on 2 Jan. 1836 in the churchyard of the church where he and Anne had been married. His collected works were published in 1837. Llwyd’s will left his manuscripts and books on heraldry to Miss Angharad Llwyd (1780-1866), an eminent Welsh antiquary; they are now in the National Library of Wales. (ODNB 30 Dec. 2024; DWB 30 Dec. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 30 Dec. 2024; RLF files 108, 144; The Poetical Works of Richard Llwyd, Bard of Snowdon [1837]; NA UK PROB 11/1859/189) SR