Preece Family Tree

Events

Families

Pedigree

1. 1. John Williams
      1. 1. Sarah Anne Williams

Source References

1. Rhondda Leader
   1. • Date: 29 September 1906
      • Page: Page 4
      • Citation:

         

         

        Death of Mrs. Griffiths, Maesgwyn, Porth.

        The death occurred at Barry on Tuesday morning of Mrs. Griffiths, wife of Councillor Thomas Griffiths M.E., J.P., Porth, and a director of Messrs. Insoles, Limited. The deceased lady had been in failing health for some months, and was staying at her Barry residence for the past month on the recommendation of her medical advisers. For the first few weeks her health improved, but her illness took a serious turn on Thursday last.

        Mrs. Griffiths was born at Dinas about 60 years ago, and was a daughter of the late Mr. John Williams, who, it will be remembered, was one of the first employees of the late Mr. Walter Coffin at Dinas when the levels on the crop were commenced by him, and before there were any collieries sunk in the Rhondda Valleys. Subsequently her father was appointed manager under Messrs. Geo. Insoles & Sons, and he successfully managed the house coal seams for a considerable number of years. By her death, Congregationalism in the district has lost a most esteemed and devout member, and a strong connecting link with this denomination represented by her grandfather, father, and herself, and extending over a period of 100 years, has been severed. Local philanthropic institutions will also suffer, as she was ever ready to lend a willing hand in all charitable movements.

        The interment, which will be of a public character, will take place on Saturday next at 2.30 p.m. at the churchyard adjoining the Old Congregational Chapel, Cymmer. The mortal remains were brought to Porth on Tuesday evening by the 6.15 train, and were conveyed by hearse to Maesgwyn. There were present on the platform a number of Cymmer Colliery officials, together with a large contingent of leading tradesmen, and these accompanied the mournful cortege to Maesgwyn.

2. Richard C Watson: Rhondda Coal, Cardiff Gold: Insoles of Llandaff, Coal Owners and Shippers
   1. • Page: Page 98-99
      • Citation:

        In 1877 the Cymmer colliery had a new manager, who satisfied the spirit and the letter of the Mines Regulation Act 1872 by having secured a manager's certificate by examination. Thomas Griffiths was a professional mining engineer, who succeeded Jabez Thomas when he retired. Jabez Thomas had served the Insoles for nearly fifty years from George Insole's first ventures on the canal wharf at Cardiff. It was probably his knowledge of coal mining, albeit without any formal qualifications, which made him useful to his employers; he seems, however, to have been both insensitive in his handling of subordinate managers and workers and slipshod in his supervision and administration. On two events, he bears responsibility for a serious industrial dispute and a mining disaster. He was a founder and leading member of Bethlehem, the Calvinistic Methodist chapel in Cymmer, whose first congregation came with him from Maesmawr to Cymmer in 1844. After his retirement he continued to live next to the colliery office in a house in Three-quarters Row, with his wife Ann, who was some nine years his junior and, like him, came from the Vale of Glamorgan. He died in 1885 at the age of 87.

        Thomas Griffiths was a different type of man; he was born in 1849 at Bettws near Bridgend but, by the time he left school in 1860, his family had moved to Hafod. He started work at Cymmer as a door-boy and worked for ten years at the coal-face. He became a fireman in 1869 and so started a professional career, which saw him rise to the positions of overman and agent and to the acquisition of a manager's certificate, through part-time education and private study. He had left Cymmer in the course of his progress but in 1872 he married the daughter of John Williams of Pen Rhos and he returned to work at Cymmer in 1875, possibly as engineer for the sinking of Cymmer Old to the steam coals. He was a member of the South Wales Institute of Engineers and of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society, whom he entertained at Cymmer in 1885. By that time he had been elected to the Ystradyfodwg Urban Sanitary Authority, so starting a long career of public service in local government. He was to be involved not only in colliery management but also in the direction of the Insole mining businesses over the next forty years. The Insole's management of their collieries was always more distant than the control of their sales office and both Jabez Thomas and Thomas Griffiths enjoyed a considerable measure of freedom and delegated authority in running them. Griffiths was an early beneficiary of improvements in the professional education of engineers in South Wales, which had been fostered by the South Wales Institute of Engineers.[1]

        [1] Walters, South Wales Steam Coal Industry, pp. 181-4.