Timothy Davies was the son of Timothy Davies of Ivy Bush, Tregaron, Cardiganshire, and Mary Jones. He was baptised at the Anglican parish church in Tregaron on April 23, 1848.^[1] As a teen, Davies left home to train as a draper^[2]—a very common occupation among the descendants of the old yeoman families in this part of Cardiganshire. However, he left the drapers trade some time around 1879, when he became a student at St. David’s College in Lampeter. ^[3]

By the time of his studies in Lampeter, Davies had already married to Elizabeth Davies and had four young children: Thomas John, Sarah Ann Mary, Rachel Leah, and Margaret Augusta. After the birth of their fourth, Davies was ordained as an Anglican clergyman and began his work as the curate of Llanbedrog in north Wales.^[4] The family remained in Llanbedrog until 1885, adding another child, Jane Ann, to the family. In 1885, Rev. Davies returned the the neighbourhood of his birth after being appointed the perpetual curate of Gartheli.^[5] He performed his first recorded responsibility at Gartheli on February 15, 1885, when he baptised David, the son of Eliza Daniel, an unmarried servant girl.^[6] Back home in Cardiganshire, Rev. Davies and Elizabeth had their last three children: Evan Lewis, Elizabeth Letitia, and Timothy Llewelyn.

Autumn was an especially busy time for Rev. Davies. Almost every year between 1886 and 1905,^[7] he travelled the Welsh countryside to preach at small Anglican churches in celebration of the harvest. In the church, the Harvest Thanksgiving celebrations involved multiple days of sermons by both the local clergymen and special guests, like Rev. Davies. The church was elaborately decorated (a task often led by the women of the parish), food was prepared for the congregation, and the choir gathered to sign hymns in Welsh and English. And afterwards, the events were commemorated in the papers.^[8]

In the fields, the agricultural labourers had other traditions to celebrate this time of year—harvest time was a very important time after all. According to Jonathan Ceredig Davies, it was tradition in west Wales to celebrate the Gaseg Fedi (Harvest Mare). As the agricultural labourers finished the harvest, they tied the last bit of corn in a bundle and left it standing in the field. They then gathered for a competition—standing a ways back, they each threw their sickles at the bundle, hoping to cut it in half. Whoever succeeded had the honour of sneaking to the neighbouring farm, where the harvest had yet to be finished, to throw the bundle over the hedge. The boldest aimed their throw at the foreman’s sickle while he was working. Such mischievous pranks did have their rules though—it wasn’t right to carry the Gaseg Fedi into a different parish, across a river, or to a field higher up the mountain where the harvest was delayed.^[9]

Some harvest seasons were busier for Rev. Davies than others, like 1889, when he visited Llanrhystyd, Trefilan, Pencarreg, and Llanycrwys, all in the span of a month. These were small, rural, Welsh-speaking communities and the kinds of places that Rev. Davies’ clerical work was largely associated with. In fact, even in his obituary, the Rev. John Nathan Evans, rector of Cellan, writes that “rural, simple, Welsh parishes were the field of his labour.”^[10]

As these parishes were largely Welsh-speaking, the newspapers sometimes noted that the sermons he gave were in the Welsh language. This is interesting, considering that the Welsh language didn’t receive equal standing in the Church of England, at least in theory, until the 1990s or about 100 years later.^[11] In the 19^th Century and earlier, the language of worship was usually a defining difference between the Church of England and the non-conformist chapels. Sometimes, Anglican clergymen were monolingual English speakers trained to preach only in English, yet had to serve in a largely Welsh or bilingual community.^[12] On the other hand, there was a long tradition of Welsh-language worship in non-conformist chapels, allowing the nonconformist ministers to respond to the needs of their community in ways the Church of England couldn’t, leading, in part, to their historical popularity in the country.

In total, Rev. Davies spent 32 years as the vicar of Gartheli. He was also simultaneously the vicar of Bettws Leiki for 28 years. His clerical duties^[13] continued until a few months before his death on Oct. 27, 1917, at the age of 69 years.^[14]

What I Learned While Writing this Biography

While preparing to write, I finally sat down to save copies of all of Rev. Davies’ appearances at the harvest thanksgivings. While I was researching him originally, I had skipped over these articles because they don’t have much biographical or family information in them. Finding as many of those harvest festival articles as I did also required some creative search term combinations, which is always a fun exercise. This biography also gave me a chance to finally read a bit of Jonathan Ceredig Davies’ book on West Wales Folklore which I had wanted to read for a long time.

Citations and Footnotes

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[1] 1848. Cardiganshire Baptisms. Caron, p. 155. Digital Images. Ancestry. Entry for Timothy Davies, Apr. 23, 1848, entry 1235.

[2] 1876. Cardiganshire Baptisms. Lampeter, p. 52. Digital Images. Ancestry. Entry for Thomas John Davies, Jun. 25, 1876, entry 408 and 413.

[3] 1879. Cardiganshire Baptisms. Lampeter, p. 59. Digital Images. Ancestry. Entry for Rachel Leah Davies, Oct. 2, 1879, entry 471.

[4] 1880. Ordinations at Bangor. South Wales Daily News. Dec. 20, 1880, p. 3, col. 1. https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3510617/3510620/28/

[5] 1885. Church Preferment. The North Wales Express. Mar. 6, 1885, p. 5, col. 5. https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3561289/3561294/19/

[6] 1885. Cardiganshire Baptisms. Gartheli, p. 56. Digital Images. Ancestry. Entry for David Daniel, Feb. 15, 1885, entry 441.

[7] I have found Harvest Thanksgiving articles for every year except for 1890, 1892, 1894, 1900, 1902, and 1903. It seems likely that he travelled for these years as well and the issue is in the search terms used to find the articles. The evidence also shows more sporadic travels post-1904: in 1908, 1909, 1913, 1915, and 1916.

[8] 1887. “Llangynllo: Harvest Festival.” Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard. Oct. 14, 1887, p. 5, col. 4.

[9] 1911. Davies, Jonathan Ceredig. “Harvest Customs, Etc.,” p. 78-81. In Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales. Aberystwyth: Printed at the Welsh Gazette Offices. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/53915/pg53915-images.html

[10] 1917. Y Diweddar Barch. Timothy Davies, Gartheli. Y Llan. Nov. 2, 1917, p. 4, col. 4. https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3688904/3688908/28/

[11] 2020. Morgan, Enid R. “The Church and the Welsh Language.” In A New History of the Church in Wales. Edited by Norman Doe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/new-history-of-the-church-in-wales/church-and-the-welsh-language/ACB6E67EAEBCADBCCE31F908733B60F9

[12] 1996. Cragoe, Matthew. An Anglican Aristocracy: The Moral Economy of the Landed Estate in Carmarthenshire, 1832–1895.

[13] According to the Gartheli register, the last event that Rev. Davies officiated was the burial of John Jones of Wernfach, Llangybi, on Jun. 13, 1917. [1917. Cardiganshire Burials. Gartheli, p. 20. Digital Images. Ancestry. Entry for John Jones, Jun. 13, 1917, entry 158.]

[14] 1917. Y Diweddar Barch. Timothy Davies, Gartheli. Y Llan. Nov. 2, 1917, p. 4, col. 4. https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3688904/3688908/28/