ROBERTS, THOMAS (1760 - 1811), the first printer at Caernarvon;

Name: Thomas Roberts
Date of birth: 1760
Date of death: 1811
Spouse: Mary Roberts
Parent: Thomas Roberts
Gender: Male
Occupation: printer
Area of activity: Printing and Publishing
Author: William Llewelyn Davies

it is not known for certain where he was born. He was at Trevecka for a time. He is sometimes confused with the Thomas Roberts (1735 - 1804) above. He went to Caernarvon in 1796 and he appears to have begun to print at Caernarvon in 1797. In 1800 he printed the first number of what was intended to be a periodical - Greal neu Eurgrawn …, of which, however, no more numbers appeared; seven years later he printed the first number of another periodical - Trysorfa Gwybodaeth, neu Eurgrawn Cymraeg; of this two numbers appeared. Ifano Jones, Hist. of Printing and Printers in Wales, quotes the titles of some other works printed by Thomas Roberts up to 1811 and, after his death, by his widow, M. Roberts, who died 20 July, 1814; it was she, e.g. who printed Arwyrain Amaethyddiaeth, the work of David Owen (Dewi Wyn o Eifion), 1812. Thomas Roberts died 30 April 1811, at the age of 51, and was buried in Llanbeblig churchyard.

Author

Sir William Llewelyn Davies, (1887 - 1952)

Sources

J. Ifano Jones, A history of printing and printers in Wales to 1810, and of successive and related printers to 1923 (Cardiff 1925)
[ Y Traethodydd 1901 ]

Additional Links

VIAF: 307451700
Wikidata: Q20804803

Published date: 1959

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

Corrections

ROBERTS, THOMAS (1760 - 1811

He was the eldest son of Thomas Roberts (1735 - 1804). He was born prematurely on 13 March 1760, in the 'little parlour' at Trefeca, when his mother was visiting her father-in-law, William Roberts (of Plas Bach) in his last illness. As mentioned in the article on Thomas Roberts (1735 - 1804), his father later moved with the family to Talgarth. He is referred to more than once in his father's diaries. He went to Talgarth school in 1775 and was sent to London, c. 1782, to be under the supervision of the well-known Moravian Benjamin La Trobe, and to learn the printer's trade. After La Trobe's death in 1786 he returned to Trefeca (June 1787) to superintend the printing of 'y Beibl bach' - the small Bible. However, by 1797 he was printing at Caernarfon. He printed both of the only two numbers of the periodical Trysorfa Gwybodaeth, neu Eurgrawn Cymraeg (see David Thomas, 'Dafydd Ddu Eryri'). He married, at Caernarfon, Mary (Williams), a rich widow.

Author

Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Sources

The North Wales Gazette, 2 May 1811
notes taken by Mr. R. Idloes Owen, Bangor, from the diaries of Thomas Roberts (senior) at N.L.W. and from family documents

Published date: 1997

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