LLOYD (LLWYD), ROBERT (1716 - 1792) of Plas Ashpool, farmer and Methodist exhorter

The son of Edward and Maria Lloyd of Nant, in the township of Cilcain, Flintshire. He was the second of three children - Mary born in 1714, Robert 12 November 1716, and David in 1720. Their father died in 1727. In 1746 Robert married a local girl named Dorothy and went to live at Tarth-y-dŵr cottage, Cilcain, and it was shortly after this that he showed a tendency to take his religion seriously. William Richard, the exhorter sent to North Wales, is reported to have said at the Association held at Builth, 1 February 1748/9: 'There is a door open to preach the word in flintshire, great many comes to hear and behave very quiet'. Robert Llwyd was probably one of the crowd. There was one class of society in the county which vehemently opposed the new religion, and the young tenant of Tarth-y-dŵr was one of the first to suffer by being ejected from his farm. The arch-enemy of the new sect was the sheriff, Hugh Hughes of Coed-y-brain - his monument in Ysgeifiog churchyard records his zeal in persecuting the wayward Methodists. In the spring of 1749 Robert Llwyd, accompanied by his wife and one small child, moved to Plas Ashpool in the parish of Llandyrnog in the Vale of Clwyd. There is no certainty as to the date from which Robert Llwyd began to take an active part in organising the Methodist movement in the Vale of Clwyd. He could not arrange his meetings in his own home because of his wife's opposition, and so he held them at Tŷ Modlen, a thatched cottage not far away. His biographers say that he began shortly after arriving at Plas Ashpool, but that is not correct. At that time the persecution at Denbigh was at its height, and the split between Howel Harris and Daniel Rowland had ensured that no revivalist had come to North Wales from South Wales for a period of ten years; Robert Llwyd was then a faithful member of the Anglican church and was on friendly terms with the parson. There is no reason to suppose that the cause started at Tŷ Modlen before the arrival of the revivalists from South Wales in 1759-1760; and this was the beginning of Methodism in the Vale of Clwyd. It was at Tŷ Modlen that John Owen (1733 - 1776) of Berthen Gron was converted, that Flintshire Methodism started, and that Edward Williams of Glan Clwyd (1750 - 1813) heard Daniel Rowland preach, and was pierced to the quick. Robert Llwyd and Edward Parry of Bryn Bugad (1723 - 1786) were friends and worked together to promote the societies and to counsel them. After a time, Dorothy Llwyd came to welcome the revivalists at her home and Williams of Pantycelyn, on one of his last tours of North Wales, stayed there for a week owing to illness. Robert Llwyd died 12 September 1792, and was buried at Llandyrnog.

Author

• Edward Davies

Sources

• Methodistiaeth Cymru (1851–6), iii, 135
• Thomas Jones, John Humphreys and John Roberts (eds.), Cofiant, neu Hanes bywyd a marwolaeth y Parch. Thomas Jones, Gweinidog yr Efengyl, yn ddiweddar o dref Ddinbych (Dinbych 1820), 31
• Cylchgrawn Cymdeithas Hanes y Methodistiaid Calfinaidd, iii
• Y Drysorfa, 1910, 391.

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20733839

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/