MEREDITH, LEWIS Lewys Glyn Dyfi (1826-1891), preacher and writer
Pseudonym: Lewys Glyn Dyfi
Date of birth: 1826
Date of death: 1891
Spouse: Nillie E. Meredith (née Phelps)
Gender: Male
Occupation: preacher and writer
Area of activity: Literature and Writing; Religion
Author: Griffith Thomas Roberts
Born 22 March 1826 at Ffactri'r Ffridd, near Machynlleth. He was educated in the Sunday school and at day schools, first of all at Machynlleth and later, when the family moved to Cwmllinau, at Cemaes. He was interested in literature from an early age and had a hand in founding a literary society at Machynlleth (c. 1854) when he was working in the office of Adam Evans, the printer. He began to preach to the Wesleyans in 1849 but failed to get accepted for the ministry (1855) because of the uncertainty of his health. After being in charge of the Welsh Wesleyans at Witton Park, Durham (1855-6), he emigrated to the U.S.A where, after a year at a seminary, he was accepted as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church (1859). Although the churches to which he ministered were English -speaking, he continued to take an interest in Welsh life; he wrote to the Eurgrawn and the Drych, preached to the Welsh when he got the opportunity, and had charge of the Welsh Wesleyan church at Chicago. In 1863 he visited Wales to plead the cause of the North in the American Civil War. In addition to his contributions to the periodicals already mentioned and to the Traethodydd, he published a book of verse, Blodau Glyn Dyfi, 1852. In 1865 he married Nillie E. Phelps, the daughter of a prominent Methodist Episcopal minister. He died 29 September 1891, and was buried in Oak Park, Chicago.
He had a brother, RICHARD MEREDITH (1826 - 1856), who wrote articles for the Traethodydd and Winllan, sometimes under his own name and sometimes under the pen-name Caradog. He was for a short time a Wesleyan lay preacher. He was a sickly, lame man, who died at Cwmllinau
Author
- Reverend Griffith Thomas Roberts, (1887 - 1977)
Sources
- There is a full memoir of Lewis Meredith in Yr Eurgrawn Wesleyaidd, 1894, passim
- see also Y Geninen (Gŵyl Dewi), 1903, 54
- R. Williams, Montgomeryshire Worthies (1894)
- Notable Welshmen (1700–1900) (1908)
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/
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