John Thomas (cleric)
Encyclopedia
John Thomas was a Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 Anglican priest
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 and antiquarian
Antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...

.

Life

Thomas was born in Ynyscynhaearn, Caernarfonshire
Caernarfonshire
Caernarfonshire , historically spelled as Caernarvonshire or Carnarvonshire in English during its existence, was one of the thirteen historic counties, a vice-county and a former administrative county of Wales....

, in north Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, on 22 October 1736 and after studying at various places including the Friars School in Bangor
Bangor, Gwynedd
Bangor is a city in Gwynedd, north west Wales, and one of the smallest cities in Britain. It is a university city with a population of 13,725 at the 2001 census, not including around 10,000 students at Bangor University. Including nearby Menai Bridge on Anglesey, which does not however form part of...

, he went to the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

, matriculating
Matriculation
Matriculation, in the broadest sense, means to be registered or added to a list, from the Latin matricula – little list. In Scottish heraldry, for instance, a matriculation is a registration of armorial bearings...

 as a member of Jesus College
Jesus College, Oxford
Jesus College is one of the colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street...

 in 1755. He was ordained in 1760 and became a curate in Holyhead
Holyhead
Holyhead is the largest town in the county of Anglesey in the North Wales. It is also a major port adjacent to the Irish Sea serving Ireland....

, Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...

 in the same year, having previously spent some time as the under-keeper of the museum in Oxford before finding that his wages were inadequate to match his drinking. In 1761, Thomas became usher at his old school, Friars, thereby also becoming curate
Curate
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...

 of Llandygai. In 1766, he was appointed as deputy to the master of Beaumaris grammar school
Ysgol David Hughes
Ysgol David Hughes is the largest Secondary School in Anglesey, Wales. It was founded in 1603, originally as a free Grammar School in Beaumaris. In 1963, with the local authority leading the way in introducing the comprehensive system, the school moved to Menai Bridge as a mixed comprehensive...

, with curacies in Llansadwrn
Llansadwrn
Llansadwrn is a small village in Carmarthenshire, Wales.It is located in the countryside of the River Tywi river valley, about half way between Llanymddyfri to the north-east, and Llandeilo to the south-west, just off the A40 road....

 and Llandegfan
Llandegfan
Llandegfan is a village on the south of Anglesey, North Wales.The original village Hen Llandegfan was on the ancient way from the crossing of the Menai Strait at Porthaethwy via Pentraeth to Beaumaris...

. He died on 27 March 1769 and was buried in Llandegfan.

Thomas was well respected by his contemporaries as a scholar of Welsh and as an antiquarian. He copied old Welsh language
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 manuscripts, but his collection was dispersed after the death of his brother (Richard Thomas
Richard Thomas (cleric)
Richard Thomas was a Welsh Anglican priest and antiquarian.-Life:Thomas, who was the younger brother of the priest and antiquarian John Thomas, was born on 10 December 1753 in Ynyscynhaearn, Caernarfonshire, north Wales. Like his elder brother, he studied at the Friars School and Jesus College,...

) who inherited them. He was the author of the anonymously-written History of the Island of Anglesey (1775). A genealogical account of his of the Penrhyn and Cochwillan families was used by William Williams in his 1802 Observations on the Snowdon Mountains.
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