Samuel Roberts (Welsh writer)

Welsh minister

Samuel Roberts (6 March 1800 – 24 September 1885), or simply S. R., was a Welsh minister, known also as a political and economic writer. He was involved in an attempt to set up a Welsh colony in Tennessee, but this was disrupted by the American Civil War.

He was the eldest son of the minister John Roberts, born on 6 March 1800 at the chapel house, Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire. He was taught until he was ten by his father, and subsequently at a school at Shrewsbury, after which he worked on his father's farm, and acquired a knowledge of shorthand. After preaching for his father's church around 1819, Roberts went to the dissenting academy kept by George Lewis (1763–1822), first at Llanfyllin, and later at Newtown, where he remained for six years. In April 1826 he was invited to become assistant pastor to his father, and was ordained 15 August 1827. He succeeded in 1834 to the sole charge of the church, together with eight chapels of ease. He attended them all, with the assistance of his brother John Roberts (1804–1884). In 1843, Roberts founded a Welsh language journal, Y Cronicl, in which he campaigned for radical causes. In 1857, he travelled to Tennessee in the hope of setting up a Welsh colony there, with a group including his brother Richard Roberts (1810–1883). Both a pacifist and an abolitionist, Roberts was placed in a difficult position by the outbreak of the American Civil War. After ten years, he gave up the attempt and returned to Wales. In 1883 he received a grant of £50 from the Royal Bounty Fund, on the recommendation of the prime minister, William Gladstone, as recognition for his pioneering work in the cause of social progress and postal reform.

During his later years Roberts concentrated on denominational issues, supporting the congregational principle of self government against attempts to organise Welsh independent churches on presbyterian lines. In 1868 he started a weekly paper called Y Dydd (published at Dolgelly), which was later amalgamated with Y Tyst. In 1878 he started another paper, Y Celt. Roberts died unmarried on 24 September 1885, and was buried in Conway cemetery in the same grave as his two brothers, Richard and John, who had predeceased him. A monument provided by public subscription was placed over the grave, and a memorial tablet in Llanbrynmair chapel.