Dictionary of Welsh Biography

NANNEY family Nannau, victors; his son Meurig Fychan has a sepulchral effigy in Dolgelley church, with a lion carved on his shield, but it is open to grave doubt whether he was one of the garrison of Bere castle soon after the death of Llywelyn the Last. There is no cogent proof to connect Anian II, bishop of St Asaph from 1268 to 1293 with this family, though a Peniarth manuscript does refer to him as the 'black friar of
NANNEY, RICHARD (1691 - 1767), Evangelical cleric He was born in 1691, one of the Cefndeuddwr family by Trawsfynydd, a branch of the ancient house of Nannau. He matriculated from Jesus College, Oxford, in 1710, graduated B.A. in 1714, M.A. in 1719; he was made vicar of Clynnog in 1718, and rector of Llanaelhaearn in 1725; Foster adds that he was also canon of Bangor. He was deeply endowed with a fine liberality of spirit, which is not at all
NASH, RICHARD (Beau Nash; 1674 - 1761) mother was a niece of John Poyer of Pembroke. His ancestry is not clear. A family bearing the surname Nash had been squires of Llangwm, Pembrokeshire (W. Wales Hist. Records, ii, 36-7; Laws, Little England, 445); Fenton describes them as newcomers to Pembrokeshire (possibly from Carmarthen town, where, in 1586, there was an important merchant named Richard Nash). It was a family in which the name
NEPEAN, MARY EDITH (1876 - 1960), novelist Born at LlandudnoLlandudno, Caernarfonshire in 1876, daughter of John Bellis, a Caernarfonshire county councillor, and Mary, his wife. She was educated at home, studying art with Robert Fowler, and later showed her work at a number of exhibitions. She married in 1899 Molyneux Edward Nepean, of a family of high-ranking civil servants, and resided in England, moving in literary circles in London
NEWELL, RICHARD (1785 - 1852), farmer and Calvinistic Methodist preacher Born at Allt-y-ffynnon, Aberhavesp, Montgomeryshire, 23 March 1785, son of Richard Newell, farmer, and Bridget his wife. In 1786 the family moved to Gwernfyda, Llanllugan, where Richard attended the school kept by the Rev. John Davies and David Davies. Afterwards (1786) they moved to Bryn, Llanwyddelan, where the father died in 1800. After this the son attended the school kept by his uncle, John
NICHOLAS, JOHN MORGAN (1895 - 1963), musician Morgan Nicholas was born on 4 June 1895 in Pen-y-cae, Port Talbot, the youngest but one of the seven children of Rhys and Margaret Nicholas. His father, a carpenter, who was also a good musician, and precentor at Saron Calvinistic Methodist chapel in Pen-y-cae, came of a family well established in the area and said to be descended from a family of Greek carpenters and musicians shipwrecked on the
NICHOLAS, THOMAS EVAN (Niclas y Glais; 1879 - 1971), poet, minister of religion and advocate for the Communist Party well as a farmer. The boy was reared in an independent, cultured and anti-establishment community. A younger contemporary was D.J. Davies, born in the small holding to which the Nicholas family moved in 1880, and who became the minister of Capel Als, Llanelli. Another from the same area was Thomas Rees, pioneer of the Labour Party and of adult education and Principal of Bala-Bangor College. T.E
NICHOLAS, WILLIAM RHYS (1914 - 1996), minister and hymnwriter tuberculosis, and spent a long period at Sealyham hospital and the sanatorium at Bronllys, near Talgarth. The family attended the Independent chapel at Llwyn-yr-hwrdd, and in his early twenties, inspired by his minister, Stanley Jones, Rhys decided to offer himself as a candidate for the ministry. He went to the Presbyterian College at Carmarthen and from there to the University College of Swansea, where he
NICHOLL, Sir JOHN (1759 - 1838), judge Born 16 March 1759, the second son of John Nicholl of Llan-maes, one of a family long established at Llan-maes and Llantwit Major, Glamorganshire. He was educated at Cowbridge and Bristol, and matriculated from S. John's College, Oxford, 27 June 1775 (B.C.L. 1780). He obtained the degree of D.C.L. on 6 April 1785, the essential qualification for admission to the exceedingly close corporation of
NICOLAS, DAFYDD (1705? - 1774), poet itinerant schoolmaster at that time. Towards the middle of the century (or, perhaps, before that) he came to the notice of the Williams family of Aberpergwm, and that mansion was his home thenceforward until he died. It was maintained during the last century that he was kept there as ' family bard ' - the last in Wales, so it was said; but William Davies of Cringell (1756 - 1823) said in 1795-6 that he
NOAKES, GEORGE (1924 - 2008), Archbishop of Wales in Wales changed from a legalistic assembly into a family gathering. So capable, respected, and affable, he steered meetings quietly but firmly when the ordination of women priests, remarriage in church after divorce, and the grouping of parishes were on the agenda. The Church in Wales had a long reputation for failing to grasp matters and for back-tracking. The 'Archbishop's state of the church
NOVELLO, IVOR (1893 - 1951), composer, playwright, stage and film actor Born at 95 Cowbridge Road, Cardiff, 15 January 1893, of a very musical family who soon moved to Llwyn-yr-eos, 11 Cathedral Road, Cardiff, the only son of David Davies, rates collector, and Clara Novello Davies. He attended Mrs. Soulez' school nearby and received musical tuition from his mother and (Sir) Herbert Brewer, Gloucester. His good soprano voice won him prizes at eisteddfodau, and a

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