LEATHART, WILLIAM DAVIES (died after 1840), historian of the Gwyneddigion Society of London

Grandson, on the maternal side, of William Davies (died 1799), 'of the Denbighshire part of Bodffari,' who had been made an honorary member of the Society in 1790. Joining the Society in 1822 he became an enthusiastic member, serving the Society as librarian in 1826 and as secretary in 1828, and much more important as its official historian.

His work, The Origin and Progress of the Gwyneddigion Society of London. Instituted M.DCC.LXX., was published in London by Hugh Pierce Hughes, in 1831. This has proved a most valuable source-book for the history of the Society and an important contribution to the story of London - Welsh life at the end of the 18th century and the first thirty years of the 19th. It is also a source-book for the history of the eisteddfodau sponsored by the Gwyneddigion. He had previously published (in 1825) a small work called Welsh Pennillion, with Translations into English, Adapted for Singing to the Harp. Five letters written to Walter Davies (Gwallter Mechain) are preserved in NLW MS 1806E . [See also Cymm., 1951, 101-2, and a letter in N.L.W. written by Leathart in 1840.]

Author

• Sir William Llewelyn Davies, (1887 - 1952)

Published date: 1959

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