Preliminary Conference Report
After 18 months of preparation Friday 15th October arrived and with it fine weather and a goodly number of participants. At 9.30 Rev Andrew Lenny welcomed us on behalf of the Union of Welsh Independents and the first paper was delivered by Dr Noel Gibbard who gave a very illuminating account of the Independents in the period 1770-1830 in this area of Wales, including the fact that most ministers travelled long distances either between chapels or on preaching trips and that a horse was a necessity.In the 21st century the ministers have still to cover long distances because of their large parishes but todays horse is the car.
Dr Eryn White gave a detailed and statistical account of the educational provision of the period and we learned that because of the circulating schools of Griffith Jones, a hero of Dr White’s, and the Sunday school movement, Wales was probably the most literary country in Europe at that time.
After coffee Dr Brinley Jones instructed and entertained us in his scholarly way on the subject of the Welsh and English academies and he both surprised us by the number of academies in Wales and opened the debate on what should constitute an academy.
The final paper in the morning was read by Bryan Jones on behalf of Prof Gwyn Campbell of McGill University in Canada who had sent paper on Phillips’ Dream and the Missionaries. It was a masterful examination of the so called dream through the records of the London Missionary Society papers which showed conclusively that the dream was story of later date and probably devised to strengthen the position of the Welsh Independents in the Missionary movement.
After lunch Bryan delivered his own paper on the academy and Thomas Phillips with some details culled from old balance sheets of the founding committee and registers from the school between 1822 and 1835. One surprising figure was that of 70 students on the register in 1822 and 1823-all in two small rooms!
Finally Lloyd Jones gave us an illuminating paper on Mary Phillips and her family showing that she, through inheritance, had been the source of the Phillips family’s wealth. His detailed research on this family brought the day to an appropriate finish. We started with the wider scene and had moved on the particular and personal.
To conclude on a personal note Lloyd paid tribute to the late Mary Snowball, a descendant of Thomas Phillips, who had done much research into the family and had hoped to be with us, but had tragically died of cancer at the beginning of the year
Reports of Saturday and Sunday will be posted in the coming days
2 Responses to “Preliminary Conference Report”
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I have been told by a researcher that my family are connected to the Phillips’ through marriage. My great-great grandfather Daniel Daniel Stephens was married to an Ann Phillips from Llanfihangel-ar-arth in 1795. Her father was John Phillips and mother Rachel Price also from the same village. I know that Ann had a brother named Thomas Phillips born about 1778. Is this the same Thomas Phillips of Neuadd lwyd.
I am away from home until this evening and I will look up your connection on the family tree when I’m back home.
Kind regard
Bryan