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40-717: John Humphreys Davies was a bibliographer whose interest in Welsh literature and culture manifested in the collection of manuscripts that he acquired from many different sources over a period of many years. In his Report on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language for the Historical Manuscripts Commission , J. Gwenogvryn Evans gave credit to Davies for rediscovering manuscripts that were considered to be lost and drawing attention to other, previously unknown manuscripts. Evans also stated that despite being too modern to fall within

80-446: A dozen manuscripts among them of David Evans, Llanrwst. The library of Rev. Daniel Silvan Evans (1818-1903), had been neglected for many years before Davies bought it from his son, J. H. Silvan Evans. Most of the manuscripts relate to the literary and scholarly activities, and the lexicographical work in particular of Daniel Silvan Evans, with those of Rev. Robert Roberts (Y Sgolor Mawr) being of special lexicographical interest. There are

120-723: A number of volumes of letters addressed to Evans, by scholars and literary men including John Rhys . Historical Manuscripts Commission The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (widely known as the Historical Manuscripts Commission , and abbreviated as the HMC to distinguish it from the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England ), was a United Kingdom Royal Commission established in 1869 to survey and report on privately owned and privately held archival records of general historical interest. Its brief

160-587: A poet now brought him to the notice of various gentlemen and clergymen, who suggested he seek ordination in the Church of England . He trained for the priesthood at Berriew in Montgomeryshire and at St Bees Theological College in Cumberland , and was ordained in 1826. The same year he was licensed to conduct Welsh-language services at St Martin's, Chester, and made curate of Christleton , near Chester. In 1843 he

200-452: A smooth, musical, dignified style marked by clarity of language. Nevertheless, his oeuvre as a whole shows a versatility unmatched by any other 19th-century Welsh poet. He employed both the strict, classical Welsh metres and the free metres, and also excelled as a hymnwriter. His poems in the strict metres vary widely in quality. Some, such as his Belshazzar's Feast , are disfigured by an archaism of vocabulary and spelling which betray

240-399: Is now located at The National Archives ; while the indexes, originally compiled in manual form, but which began to be entered onto a database from about 1980, are now incorporated into The National Archives' "Discovery" catalogue. The Manorial Documents Register (MDR) is a central register recording the nature and location of English and Welsh manorial archives. It was originally set up by

280-469: Is now the sole Historical Manuscripts Commissioner, while the role of Secretary of the Commission is combined with that of Head of Archives Sector Development. Since the creation of The National Archives the role of Secretary of the Commission has been filled by Nicholas Kingsley , 2005–15 and Isobel Hunter , 2015–date. Until 1945, the principal medium through which the Commission disseminated its findings

320-677: Is predominantly of Welsh literary interest and contains a variety of material, including religious works such as sermons and hymns, volumes of annotated press cuttings, holograph letters, diaries and journals, account books, pedigrees, commonplace books , recipes, dictionaries, music, and notes on philology and bibliography. John Humphreys Davies acquired the Cwrtmawr manuscripts over a long period of time and from many sources. The largest group consists of those Davies acquired from John Jones (Myrddin Fardd) on various occasions. Other substantial groups are from

360-534: Is related to the Welsh clerical family headed by the Rev. Thomas Richards (1754–1837), including his five ordained sons and three daughters, who were involved in church and cultural movements. The group of some 100 volumes includes part of the Llansilin Manuscripts, which date from the 17th and 18th centuries. There is also a group of transcripts and memoranda gathered by Mary Richards (1787-1877). Letters to members of

400-469: Is today chiefly known neither as a journalist nor as a clergyman but as a poet. He won the Chair at various Eisteddfodau on three occasions: in 1818 with an awdl on the death of Princess Charlotte , in 1828 with his Awdl ar Wledd Belsassar ("Belshazzar's Feast"), and lastly in 1850 with a pryddest called Yr Adgyfodiad ("The Resurrection"). His poems have in common a Stoical viewpoint and

440-486: The 15th report (1899). In the same period, however, it began to publish its more detailed reports on collections as separate octavo volumes (or, in many cases, multi-volume series), with the material predominantly presented in calendar form. Over the next century it published some 200 such volumes before the series was discontinued: the final volume (the fifth in a series on the papers of the Finch family) appeared in 2004. In 1968

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480-689: The Commission itself may be regarded as a branch of the Record Office". However, in the wake of the Public Records Act 1958 (which transferred responsibility for public records to the Lord Chancellor , while the Commission remained under the authority of the Master of the Rolls) the two bodies diverged to achieve a greater degree of independence from one another. A new Royal Warrant, dated 5 December 1959, gave

520-406: The Commission published a general survey of the papers of 19th-century United Kingdom Prime Ministers ; and this was followed (between 1971 and 1985) by six volumes of editions of selected papers of Gladstone , Wellington and Palmerston . Between 1982 and 2003, the Commission published twelve thematic volumes in its series Guides to Sources for British History , based in part on the contents of

560-603: The Commission revised and greatly extended terms of reference. Over the next few decades the Secretaries to the Commission included Roger Ellis, 1957–72, Godfrey Davis , 1972–82, Brian Smith , 1982–92 and Christopher Kitching , 1992–2004. This period of independence ended in April 2003, when another Royal Warrant effectively merged the Commission with the PRO to form the new National Archives . The Chief Executive and Keeper of Public Records

600-682: The Commission was based in the Public Record Office building. In December of that year it moved into its own offices (albeit at no great distance away) at Quality House, Quality Court, Chancery Lane . The general public were able to visit Quality House during regular office hours to consult the NRA, MDR and other resources. Quality House was vacated towards the end of 2003, when the Commission's staff and resources relocated to The National Archives building at Kew. Evan Evans (Ieuan Glan Geirionydd) Evan Evans (20 April 1795 – 21 January 1855),

640-541: The Commissioners' direction. Later inspectors included Henry Maxwell Lyte , John Knox Laughton , Joseph Stevenson , Reginald Lane Poole , W. D. Macray , J. K. Laughton , Horatio Brown , W. J. Hardy and John Gwenogvryn Evans . Throughout the 19th and early 20th century the Commission remained closely associated with the Public Record Office : indeed, in 1912 it was stated that "for all practical purposes

680-618: The Master of the Rolls in 1926 (in the aftermath of the Law of Property Act 1922 and Law of Property Amendment Act 1924 ), and was initially maintained by the Public Record Office. Under the terms of the 1959 Royal Warrant responsibility for it was transferred to the HMC; and since 2003 it has been maintained by The National Archives. The hard-copy Register is in the process of being computerised: those parts which have been completed are available online. Until 1959

720-546: The National Register of Archives (see below). Topics covered included the papers of British cabinet ministers; of British colonial governors ; of the British textile, leather and metal-processing industries; and of British antiquaries and historians. Between 1962 and 1980, the Commission entered into partnerships with local record societies to publish 27 volumes of editions and calendars of significant manuscripts, in what

760-470: The Records. They were shortly afterwards joined by George Butler, Bishop of Limerick ; and Lord Talbot de Malahide . A new Royal Warrant of 1876 confirmed the appointment of what had effectively become a standing commission; and the Commission's work was extended by further warrants dated 18 December 1897 and 27 March 1919. Four inspectors (including H. T. Riley ) were appointed in 1869 to survey records under

800-459: The Shepherd of Cwm Dyli "). Many of them are influenced by the works of the 18th-century English Graveyard School . Evans' best hymns are considered to be among the greatest in the Welsh language; they are sung, it has been said, wherever the Welsh language is spoken. The words employ a polished style reminiscent of Isaac Watts ; they are in some cases original and in others translations from

840-544: The archival collections that had been inspected, in a combination of lists, calendars and transcripts of selected documents. The first such report was published, as a folio volume, in 1870: the appendix included reports on the manuscript collections of 44 corporate bodies and 36 private owners in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and one located overseas (English manuscripts at Heidelberg University ). Eight further reports, with increasingly detailed appendixes, were issued over

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880-741: The care of government archives, pressure began to grow for the state to pay attention to privately owned records. Largely on the initiative of Lord Romilly , the Master of the Rolls , the first Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts was appointed by Royal Warrant dated 2 April 1869. The first Commissioners were Romilly himself (as chairman); the Marquess of Salisbury ; the Earl of Airlie ; Earl Stanhope ; Lord Edmοnd Petty-Fitzmaurice ; Sir William Stirling-Maxwell ; Charles Russell , President of Maynooth College ; George Webbe Dasent ; and T. D. Hardy , Deputy Keeper of

920-1102: The collections of the Richards family, Revs. Peter Bailey Williams and St George Armstrong Williams, William John Roberts (Gwilym Cowlyd), and Rev. Daniel Silvan Evans . In addition to the major groups there are a number of important smaller ones. It includes manuscripts relating to each of the following: manuscript transcriber Margaret Davies ( c. 1700–1785); Morris Davies (1796–1876), author, hymnologist and musician; William Davies (1805–1859); Independent minister and schoolmaster David Ellis ; James Spinther James (1837-1914), Baptist historian Owen Jones, 'Manoethwy' (1838–1866); schoolteacher and writer Owen Jones (1833–1899); Calvinistic Methodist minister, writer and bibliophile Richard Robert Jones (Dic Aberdaron) ; Lewis Morris ; Robert Prys Morris (c. 1831–1890), local historian and antiquary; John Peter (Ioan Pedr, 1833–1877), Independent minister and Welsh scholar; Hugh Pugh (1803–1868), Independent minister and schoolmaster; and Robert Williams (1810–1881), cleric, Celtic scholar and antiquary. About half

960-464: The family are dispersed throughout the Cwrtmawr collection. This group is connected to the descendants of Rev. Peter Williams (1723–1796), and were primarily written or owned by Rev. Peter Bailey Williams (1763–1836) and Rev. St George Armstrong Williams (1804–1886). Some of the manuscripts, however, relate to the Rev. Peter Williams and his son, Rev. Eliezer Williams (1754–1820). There are manuscripts of literary and antiquarian interest in addition to

1000-464: The following years, the ninth and last in folio format appearing in 1883–4. Although the contents of many of the appendixes have been superseded by more comprehensive publications and finding aids , this is not invariably the case, and a number of the early reports continue to be used by researchers. From its 10th report (1885) onwards the Commission switched to an octavo format, although it continued to include significant material in appendixes down to

1040-802: The influence of William Owen Pughe and are now seldom read. Others, like his cywydd Y Bedd ("The Grave") (1821), notable for its metrical ease, are counted among the finest strict-metre poems of their time. Most of the poems for which he is now remembered are lyrics written in the free metres. Their themes include Welsh history, as in Cyflafan Morfa Rhuddlan ("The Massacre of Rhuddlan Marsh"), memories of his own childhood, as in Glan Geirionydd ("The Bank of Geirionydd ") and Ysgoldy Rhad Llanrwst ("The Free School of Llanrwst"), and praise of mountain scenery, as in Glan Geirionydd again and Rhieingerdd Bugail Cwmdyli ("The Love Song of

1080-677: The items that J. Gwenogvryn Evans described in his Report on the Cwrtmawr Manuscripts were acquired from Myrddin Fardd. Other manuscripts and letters are tied to poets and literati of the late-18th and 19th centuries, including David Thomas (Dafydd Ddu Eryri), Owen Williams (Owain Gwyrfai) and Ebenezer Thomas (Eben Fardd) . There are many volume of letters that were published or received by Myrddin Fardd and over 150 volumes he compiled of Welsh literary and antiquarian interest. This group of manuscripts

1120-597: The online ARCHON directory maintained by The National Archives. The National Register of Archives (NRA) was established by the Commission in 1945, following the recommendations of the report on British Records after the War published by the British Records Association in 1943. It was designed as a central register, accessible to researchers, of the nature and location of local and private archives and manuscripts relating to British history; and it rapidly grew in

1160-462: The personal and family documents. The manuscripts belonging to Rev. Peter Bailey Williams were widely dispersed after he died and John Humphreys Davies acquired them from a number of sources. The provenance of some is uncertain, but it is known that Davies acquired manuscripts from Miss L. Armstrong Williams and J. Glyn Davies , and some are thought to have come from Myrddin Fardd. The poet, printer, bookseller and bibliophile Gwilym Cowlyd (1828–1904)

1200-557: The post-War years to become the principal medium through which the Commission accumulated and disseminated information about archives. The NRA consists of a collection of published and unpublished lists and catalogues of archival collections. Some have been compiled by the Commission's own staff, but the majority are copies of lists compiled by the local and other repositories in which the records are held. The Register also includes placename and personal name indexes to these lists, as well as some basic subject indexes. The hard-copy Register

1240-533: The rent. In 1816 Evan, though he had never had any higher education, was taken on as schoolmaster at a day-school in Tal-y-Bont . Moving to Chester he became an elder of the Methodist Church , though not yet 26 years of age. Around this time he published several books on theological subjects, some original and some translations into Welsh, but they have today no great reputation. Evans' first successes as

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1280-545: The scope of his Report , the collection of Welsh Ballads in Cwrtmawr manuscripts are "very valuable". In 1925, Davies transferred the fifty manuscripts that Evans had catalogued (i.e. Cwrtmawr 1-50) to the National Library of Wales. He bequeathed the entire collection to the National Library when he died on 10 August 1926. A greater proportion of the Cwrtmawr manuscripts are from the 18th and 19th centuries, but 16th and 17th-century manuscripts are also present. The collection

1320-529: Was "to make inquiry as to the places in which such Manuscripts and Papers were deposited", and to report on their contents. It remained in existence until 2003, when it merged with the Public Record Office to form The National Archives . Although it technically survives as a legal entity, its work is now entirely subsumed into that of The National Archives. Following the passing of the Public Record Office Act 1838 , which made statutory provision for

1360-677: Was a Welsh clergyman, poet, hymnwriter, journalist, translator and devotional writer, who was three times chaired at various local Eisteddfodau . His works were almost all written in the Welsh language , the poems being published under his bardic name , Ieuan Glan Geirionydd . Seven of his poems are included in The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse . His best-known poems are perhaps Ysgoldy Rhad Llanrwst , Glan Geirionydd and Cyflafan Morfa Rhuddlan , and his hymns include Rwy'n sefyll ar dymhestlog lan and Mae 'nghyfeillion adre'n myned . Evan Evans

1400-500: Was born at Tan-y-Celyn, a farmhouse near the village of Trefriw , (then Caernarfonshire ). His parents were educated people, and indeed his father was a poet; they were among the first Calvinist Methodists in their village. Young Evan received his education at the village church school, then at the free grammar school in Llanrwst . He then began working on his parents' farm, but the family fell into poverty when their landlord raised

1440-476: Was called its Joint Publications series. In 1964, the Commission first published its Record Repositories in Great Britain , a geographical directory to publicly accessible national, local and specialist archive repositories . This was regularly updated and reissued in revised editions, and became a standard resource for researchers. The last edition was the 11th, published in 1999: it has now been superseded by

1480-469: Was editor of the monthly magazine Goleuad Gwynedd . In 1833 he became editor of Y Gwladgarwr , a magazine set up in imitation of the English Saturday Magazine , and continued in that job for three years. Long after Evans' death it was remembered as being "far and away the most interesting of the earlier Welsh periodicals", and "one of the best magazines ever published in Welsh." Evans

1520-505: Was publication: thereafter, it developed other channels of communication (notably the National Register of Archives: see below), but publication always remained important. Throughout its existence, the Commission published periodical reports to the Crown in the form of command papers . The reports themselves were relatively brief and conventional, but in the early years they were accompanied by lengthy appendixes comprising detailed descriptions of

1560-472: Was the source of many of Davies's manuscripts and printed books, although there is uncertainty about the source of some, particularly Cwrtmawr Mss 33 and 42, which even Davies himself noted that he might have acquired from Gwilym Cowlyd. The group includes manuscripts personally connected with Gwilym Cowlyd and with his uncle, Rev. Evan Evans (Ieuan Glan Geirionydd) , and also letters addressed to Gwilym Cowlyd and compilations of annotated press cuttings. There are

1600-634: Was transferred to the curacy of Ince , in Cheshire . In 1852 his wife, of whom little is known, died, and since Evans himself was in poor health he returned home to Trefriw. In July 1854 he was given a curacy in Rhyl , and the following January he died there. He was buried in Trefriw, alongside his parents and his wife. For some years in his youth Evans devoted much of his time to Welsh-language journalism. From 1818 to 1820, when he stepped down for health reasons, he

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