London Branch of the Welsh Family History Societies - Cangen Llundain o'r Cymdeithasau Hanes Teuluoedd Cymru

The Welsh in London

	Catrin ferch Owain Glyndŵr was one of the daughters of Owain Glyndŵr and Marged Hanmer. In 1409 during the Welsh uprising, Catrin's husband Edmund Mortimer was killed by the English at Harlech, and Catrin, along with their son and two daughters, were taken capture. They, together with her mother and one of her sisters, were incarcerated in the Tower of London. Catrin died in mysterious circumstances four years later and was buried with her children in St Swithin's Church in the City of London. The only record of her death is in the Exchequer documents of 1413: "for expenses and other charges incurred for the burial of the wife of Edmund Mortimer and her daughters, buried within St Swithin's Church London ... £1" This memorial to Catrin stands in St Swithin's Church Gardens in Salter's Hall Court, EC4 (opposite Cannon Street Station) where the church formerly stood. The statue was designed by Nic Stradlyn-John and sculpted by Richard Renshaw out of Gelligaer bluestone and was unveiled in 2001 by actress Siân Phillips. It has a curving naturalistic form and a flowing line leading from the stone base to a bronze tip suggests two figures: a mother protecting her child. The inscription, by Menna Elfyn, reads: Catrin Glyndŵr Godre Tŵr, adre nid aeth - At the tower end, far way from home aria ei rhyw yw hiraeth - longing is a woman's song alaw dawel yr alltud - an exile's silent song
	Sir Hugh Myddelton (1560 – 1631) was the sixth son of Richard Myddelton, of Denbigh. He travelled to seek his fortune in London and after being apprenticed to a goldsmith. He became an alderman and then recorder of Denbigh, and succeeded his father as MP for Denbigh Boroughs from 1603 to 1628. He also become a very wealthy merchant but much of his wealth came from mines owned in Cardiganshire. He is best remembered as the driving force behind the construction of the New River, an ambitious engineering project to bring clean water from the River Lea, near Ware, in Hertfordshire to New River Head, London. After the initial project encountered financial difficulties, Myddelton helped fund the project through to completion. The New River was constructed between 1608 and 1613 and was officially opened on 29th September 1613, some 38 miles in length. He died in December 1631, and was buried in the church of St. Matthew Friday Street, in the City of London. This memorial to Hugh Myddelton, by John Thomas, was unveiled in 1862 by William Ewart Gladstone on Islington Green, close to the Round Pond, the original southern end of the New River.
	Elihu Yale (5 Apr 1649 – 8 Jul 1721) was a Welsh merchant and philanthropist, governor of the East India Company, and a benefactor of the Collegiate School of Connecticut. Born in Boston, Colony of Massachusetts, to David Yale (1613–1690) and Ursula Knight (1624–1698), Yale was the grandson of Ann Lloyd (1591–1659), who after the death of her first husband, Thomas Yale (1590–1619) in Chester, married Governor Theophilus Eaton (1590–1657) of New Haven Colony. In 1652, when Elihu was three years old, the Yale family moved to London and never returned to North America. Yale's ancestry can be traced back, through many generations, to the family estate at Plas yn Iâl near the village of Llandegla in Denbighshire. The name Yale is an anglicised spelling of Iâl. Elihu Yale later resided at another of the family's houses, Plas Grono, near Wrexham, a mansion bought by his father. By this time Yale had amassed considerable wealth. In 1718 Yale was asked to provide financial help for a small institution of learning, that had been founded as the 'Collegiate School of Connecticut' in 1701, for a new building in New Haven, Connecticut. Yale donated goods that the school subsequently sold, earning them £800, a substantial sum in the early 18th century. In gratitude, officials named the new building Yale; eventually the entire institution became Yale College and later Yale University. Yale died in 1721 in London, but his body was returned to Wales to be buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St. Giles in Wrexham. His tomb is inscribed with these lines: Born in America, in Europe bred In Africa travell'd and in Asia wed Where long he liv'd and thriv'd; In London dead Much good, some ill, he did; so hope all's even And that his soul thro' mercy's gone to Heaven You that survive and read this tale, take care For this most certain exit to prepare Where blest in peace, the actions of the just Smell sweet and blossom in silent dust. 'Wrexham Tower', part of Saybrook College, Yale University, is a replica of that of St. Giles' Church, Wrexham.
	Edward Williams (10 Mar 1747 - 18 Dec 1826), better known by his bardic name of *Iolo Morganwg,* was an influential antiquarian, poet, collector, and literary forger! He was widely considered a leading collector and expert on medieval Welsh literature in his day, but after his death it was revealed that he had forged a large number of his manuscripts. Regardless, he had a lasting impact on Welsh culture, seen most notably in his foundation of the Gorsedd. He was born at Pen-onn in the parish of Llancarfan, Glamorgan, and was raised in the village of Flemingston. In 1773 he moved to London, where the antiquary Owen Jones introduced him to the city's Welsh literary community. In 1777 he returned to Wales, where he married and tried his hand at farming, but evidently met with no success. It was during this time that he produced his first forgeries. On 21st June 1792, the summer solstice, Iolo Morganwg summoned the first Gorsedd of the Bards of the Isle of Britain to the summit of Primrose Hill in London. This memorial, designed by the sculptor John Meirion Morris and the calligrapher Ieuan Rees, was unveiled in a ceremony on 20th June 2009 at Primrose Hill. The photograph was taken by Theo Brueton at the unveiling ceremony.
	Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, the 4th Baronet, of Wynnstay, Ruabon, Denbighshire, inherited the extensive Wynnstay estates as an infant when his father, the 3rd Baronet ('the great Sir Watkin'), was killed in a fall from his horse while out hunting. On his coming of age in 1770, he held an extravagant party at Wynnstay for 15,000 guests. He was Member of Parliament for Shropshire (1772 - 1774) and for Denbighshire (1774 - 1789), and was Lord Lieutenant of Merionethshire (1775-1789). Described as "perhaps the greatest patron of the arts Wales has ever produced", Sir Watkin spent much of his time at his London home, at 20, St James's Square, Westminster, which he commissioned architect Robert Adam to build and which was which was constructed between 1771 and 1775. Sir Watkin lavished the house with paintings, at a considerable cost to the family fortune! The Williams Wynn family occupied the house until 1906 and owned it until 1920. Owing to heavy death duties, the Williams Wynns moved from Wynnstay to nearby Plas Belan, a house in the estate grounds, with most of the family finally leaving Ruabon forever in 1948 but the Dowager Lady Wynn remained in Plas Belan until her death. The organ at Wynnstay was built by John Snetzler in 1774 for the house in St. James's Square but was moved to Wynnstay in 1863. During the sale of Wynnstay and its contents, the organ, and many other treasures, were acquired for the nation and are now displayed at the National Museum in Cardiff. Wynnstay Hall has since been converted into luxury flats.
	David Lloyd-George (17 Jan 1863 – 26 Mar 1945) was born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England on 17th January 1863 to William and Elizabeth George. His father was a native of Pembrokeshire and his mother of Llanystumdwy, Caernarfonshire. David Lloyd George was MP for Caernarfon and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922 and was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the head of a wartime coalition government between the years 1916–22 and the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1926–31. During his time in London Lloyd-George was a member of the Welsh Presbyterian Chapel in Charing Cross Road. He died of cancer in 1945, at the age of 82, and was buried beside the Afon Dwyfor in Llanystumdwy. A great boulder marks his grave but it contains no inscription. A monument, designed by the architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, was later erected around the grave, bearing an englyn composed by his nephew Dr. William George. A G.L.C. blue plaque was erected at his former London residence at 3 Routh Road, Wandsworth Common, SW18 in 1967. A memorial, by sculptor, Professor Glyn Williams was unveiled in Parliament Square in October 2007. The design is cast in bronze and the plinth is a solid six tonne block of Penrhyn Heather Blue Grey slate.
	Clara Novello Davies (‘Pencerddes Morgannwg’) (7 Apr 1861 - 7 Feb 1943) was a Welsh singer, teacher and conductor. She was born in 1861 in Canton, Cardiff to Jacob Davies, and Margaret Evans and was named after Clara Anastasia Novello, the famous soprano. She married David Davies, a solicitor's clerk in 1883. Their son, David Ivor Davies, born in 1893, became better known as Ivor Novello, the composer, singer, playwright, actor and director. They also had an adopted daughter, Marie Williams, who took on the name Marie Novello and became an accomplished concert pianist before dying of throat cancer at an early age. In 1883 Clara founded and conducted the Welsh Ladies Choir, performing at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the Paris Exposition of 1899. By 1911 she was living at 60, New Bond Street, London, where she was a teacher of singing, although the other members of the family were still living in Cardiff. In 1913 the rest of the family also moved from Cardiff to London. Clara Novello Davies died in London in 1943, aged 81, and was cremated in Golder's Green in north west London.
	David Ivor Davies (15 Jan 1893 – 6 Mar 1951), better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer, playwright, actor and director who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. He was born in 1893 at 95 Cowbridge Road, Cardiff but the family soon moved to "Llwyn yr Eos", a five bedroom Victorian house in Cathedral Road, Cardiff. Novello was taught music by his mother, Clara Novello Davies, at an early age, and won a scholarship to Magdalen Choir School in Oxford at the age of ten. In 1913 the family moved from Cardiff to London where he continued as his mother's accompanist and began composing his own ballads. Novello took a flat above the Strand Theatre which became his London home for the rest of his life, and where he died in 1951. Novello's first successes were as a songwriter, his best-remembered songs "Keep the Home Fires Burning" and "We'll Gather Lilacs" became popular with British soldiers fighting in World War I and led to him being asked to score several of London's West End productions. In the 1920s, he turned to acting, firstly in films and then on stage, with considerable success in both. Ivor Novello died of thrombosis in 1951 and was cremated at the Golder's Green Crematorium in north west London. His ashes were buried beneath a lilac bush and marked with a plaque that reads "Ivor Novello 6th March 1951 'Till you are home once more'." A blue commemorative plaque on the Strand Theatre marks his connection with the building and, in 1952, a bronze bust of Novello, by Clemence Dane, was unveiled in the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. In St. Paul's Church (known as the actors' church), Covent Garden, a panel was installed to commemorate his life and, in 1972, to mark the 21st anniversary of his death, a memorial stone was unveiled in St. Paul's Cathedral.
	Peter Rees Jones (1843 – 1905) was born in Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire, the son of Thomas Jones, a hat maker. He was the founder of the Peter Jones department store in Sloane Square, Chelsea, London. After serving an apprenticeship with a draper in Carmarthen he moved to London in 1864, working as an apprentice at Tarn's, a draper's in Newington, but moving soon after to a larger shop, Stagg & Mantle, in Leicester Square. In 1866 he married Anna Maria Campion at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch but Anna Maria died just two years later. In 1870 he married his second wife, Amanda Blanche Cockayne, at Great Queen Street Chapel in Bloomsbury. He opened his first shop, in Hackney, but by 1871 he had moved twice, firstly to Southampton Row and then to Chelsea, where he took a lease on two small shops in Marlborough Road (now known as Draycott Avenue). Chelsea was an area which, at that time, was growing in affluence and, by 1877, he had moved onto the more exclusive Kings Road. The business flourished and soon expanded into many of the neighbouring properties, before being completely rebuilt in the 1880s. The original premises were replaced with a five-storey building which was completed in 1890. This new building was lavishly appointed with marble pillars, thick carpets and palms and the staff quarters contained a library, piano and two billiard tables. The shop was the first in England to be lit by electricity throughout. By 1900 the business employed over 300 people and was floated on the Stock Exchange. After his death in 1905, the Peter Jones Sloane Square store was purchased by John Lewis and remains part of the chain today.