Mordecai Jones

Last updated

Mordecai Jones (1813 - 30 August 1880) was a Welsh businessman and pioneer in the development of the South Wales coalfield. He was a notable promoter of the British Schools model of free education, and of Welsh and English Calvinistic Methodist churches. He became mayor of Brecon in 1854.

Contents

Biography

Born in 1813, the son of a boat builder on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, he was educated in Brecon at the expense of a local coal merchant. [1]

Career

After leaving school, he took over his sponsor's business, and after adding the old Breconshire Brewery to his interests in 1841, [2] in the same year purchased the Abergavenny Gas Works. He was later chairman of the Brecon Gas Works, from its inception until his death. [1]

Jones developed both the Nantmelyn Colliery in Cwmdare in the Aberdare Valley from 1861, and the Mardy Colliery in the Rhondda Fach Valley in 1876. [1] After Jones's death in 1880, the Nantmelin Colliery Company was formed to run that pit, while Mardy's lease was taken over by Locket's Merthyr Company.

Politics

Jones was mayor of Brecon from 1854. He then became deputy lieutenant for Brecknock, [1] at which time he built Camden Cottage on land leased from the 2nd Marquis of Camden and Earl of Brecknock. It still stands today, converted to a guest house. [2] In 1876, he became High Sheriff of Brecknockshire. [1]

A supporter of the Welsh language, in his position as secretary of the Calvinistic Methodist ministers and elders in Brecknock, in June 1848 he drafted and co-signed a letter to J. P. Kay Shuttleworth of the Committee of Council on Education, urging that H.M. Inspectors of Schools should have a knowledge of Welsh. [1]

Religion

A fervent Calvinistic Methodist, he was secretary to the group of Calvinistic Methodist ministers and elders in Brecknock and promoted the development of churches in both England and Wales. Jones granted ex-gratia freehold sites to all denominations on both his Mardy, and later Cwmdare sites. [1]

Schooling

Jones was one of the chief promoters of the British and Foreign School Society in South Wales, and a financial contributor to the establishment of the Normal School in Brecon in 1846. He then became chairman of the Brecon School Board from its formation until 1879. [1]

Jones supported the efforts of David Charles III to combine Government aid with voluntary charity. At a conference held at Merthyr Tydfil, non-conformist ministers from Monmouthshire, Glamorgan, and Brecknock agreed to accept Government aid, enabling the formation of the South Wales British Schools Association, with Jones as treasurer and Benjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover as president. [1]

Death

Jones died at Morgannwg House on Glamorgan Street, Brecon, next to the Ursuline convent, on 30 August 1880. [1]

Related Research Articles

Aberdare Human settlement in Wales

Aberdare is a town in the Cynon Valley area of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, at the confluence of the Rivers Dare (Dâr) and Cynon. Aberdare has a population of 39,550. Aberdare is 4 miles (6 km) south-west of Merthyr Tydfil, 20 miles (32 km) north-west of Cardiff and 22 miles (35 km) east-north-east of Swansea. During the 19th century it became a thriving industrial settlement, which was also notable for the vitality of its cultural life and as an important publishing centre.

Brecknockshire Historic county of Wales

Brecknockshire, also known as the County of Brecknock, Breconshire, or the County of Brecon is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales, and a former administrative county. Named after its county town of Brecon, the county is mountainous and primarily rural.

David Davies (industrialist)

David Davies was a Welsh industrialist and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1874 and 1886. Davies was often known as David Davies Llandinam. He is best remembered today for founding Barry Docks.

South Wales Region of Wales

South Wales is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. It has a population of around 2.2 million, almost three-quarters of the whole of Wales, including 400,000 in Cardiff, 250,000 in Swansea and 150,000 in Newport. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards to include Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. In the western extent, from Swansea westwards, local people would probably recognise that they lived in both south Wales and west Wales. The Brecon Beacons National Park covers about a third of south Wales, containing Pen y Fan, the highest British mountain south of Cadair Idris in Snowdonia.

Abercynon Human settlement in Wales

Abercynon, is both a village and a community in the Cynon Valley within the unitary authority of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. The community comprises the village and the districts of Carnetown and Grovers Field to the south, Navigation Park to the east, and Glancynon to the north.

Ynyshir Human settlement in Wales

Ynyshir is a village and community located in the Rhondda Valley, within Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales. Ynyshir is pronounced (ənɪs-hiːr) according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), and means "long island" in Welsh. The village takes its name from a farm in the area, falling within the historic parishes of Ystradyfodwg and Llanwynno (Llanwonno). The community of Ynyshir lies between the small adjoining village of Wattstown and the larger town of neighbouring Porth.

Cwmdare Human settlement in Wales

Cwmdare is a village very close to Aberdare, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. The village's history is intertwined with coal-mining, and since the decline of the industry in the 1980s, it has become primarily a commuter base for the larger surrounding towns of Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil and Pontypridd, as well as the cities of Cardiff and Swansea.

William Lewis, 1st Baron Merthyr

William Thomas Lewis, 1st Baron Merthyr, known as Sir William Lewis, 1st Baronet, from 1896 to 1911, was a Welsh coal mining magnate.

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1880 to Wales and its people.

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1842 to Wales and its people.

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1784 to Wales and its people.

Maerdy Colliery was a coal mine located in the South Wales village of Maerdy, in the Rhondda Valley, located in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, and within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. Opened in 1875, it closed in December 1990.

Bwllfa Colliery was a coal mine located in the Dare valley near Cwmdare in Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales. It operated from 1856 to 1957, remaining open as a ventilation shaft for Mardy Colliery until 1989.

Thomas Price was a leading figure in the political and religious life of Victorian Wales and minister of Calfaria Baptist Chapel, Aberdare.

The Brecon by-election of February 1866 was held on 27 February 1866. The by-election arose following the death of the previous Liberal MP, John Lloyd Vaughan Watkins.

Thomas Thomas (architect) Welsh minister and architect

Thomas Thomas was a Welsh church minister and chapel architect, also known as Thomas Glandŵr. He is described as "the first national architect of Wales" and the "unchallenged master of chapel architecture in Wales in the 1860s".

Hopkin Bevan (1765–1839) was a Calvinist Methodist minister and writer.

The Risca colliery disasters were a series of catastrophic mine explosions near the Welsh town of Risca in the nineteenth century. The most serious of these were in 1860 when more than 140 died in the Black Vein colliery and in 1880 when 120 died at the New Risca colliery.

George Insole South Wales coal owner and shipper (1790–1851)

George Insole was an English entrepreneur who built an extensive coal mining and shipping business in South Wales.

David Watkin Jones Welsh poet, historian, and geologist (1832-1905)

David Watkin Jones, also known by his bardic name Dafydd Morganwg(sic), was a Welsh poet, historian and geologist. He is remembered as the author of numerous works, especially Yr Ysgol Farddol, considered by many later poets as the main text for Welsh prosody.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Mordecai Jones". Welsh Biography Online. Retrieved 2011-01-04.
  2. 1 2 "The Grange Guest House, Brecon". TheGrange-Brecon.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-01-04.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.