Grave of the three Roberts brothers
Samuel, John and Richard Roberts (d.1880s)
Buried here are three brothers who were famous as preachers and social reformists. One was the first advocate of the “penny post”, as you can read on our page about the brothers’ last home, in the Morfa area of Conwy.
All three were born in Llanbrynmair, near Machynlleth: Samuel in 1800, John in 1804 and Richard in 1810. Their father John was a minister and theologian. Samuel was a pacifist and opponent of slavery.
Samuel and Richard – then a married father – founded a Welsh settlement in East Tennessee. Settlers who had bought plots of land travelled there with Samuel in 1857 but most soon left, disheartened by the hard work and legal problems. During the American Civil War, the Roberts brothers’ farm was near the front line, East Tennessee being loyal to the Union (anti-slavery) while the rest of the state sided with the Confederates.
They repeatedly had to feed and put up soldiers, usually for no payment. The army stole provisions, tools and weapons. Samuel’s opposition to war, even to achieve abolition of slavery, aroused suspicions.
After the war ended in 1865, Samuel claimed repayment from the US Government, which advised him in 1881 to ask the British Government instead, as he was a British citizen!
By the end of 1870, both brothers and Richard’s wife and daughter had all returned to Wales. They settled in Conwy, where John had been minister since 1860 at Seion chapel, now the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art. It was known as Capel y Dysteb (“the testimonial chapel”) after subscribers presented John with a testimonial of £800 from y werin a’r miloedd ( “the ordinary people and the thousands”). John gave it all to the chapel to clear the debts from its 1876 rebuilding.
The brothers lived the rest of their lives in the Morfa area. John and Samuel founded Y Cronicl, a Welsh Congregational newspaper published in Conwy.
They died in 1883, 1884 and 1885, followed in 1886 by Richard’s wife Anne. In 1886 a large memorial, featuring a pink marble obelisk, was erected at their grave. The inscription describes it as the tribute of y werin a’r miloedd.
With thanks to Fiona Richards