:Honourable and Loyal Society of Antient Britons
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
The Honourable and Loyal Society of Antient Britons was a London-based Welsh social, cultural, and philanthropic society, which was in existence from 1715 until the end of the 18th century.
History
The society was established at the beginning of 1715, shortly after the death of Queen Anne and the accession of the Hanoverian George I. It was in origin a loyalist body, founded to distance the London Welsh community from any suggestion of Jacobite sympathies. The society's name was chosen to emphasise the claims of the Welsh to be the original Celtic Britons. The principal founder was Thomas Jones ({{abbr|d.|died|}} 1731) of Lincoln's Inn (believed to be a native of Bridgend).Jenkins and Ramage 1951, pp. 12–13. Jones gained the support of a prominent Welsh nobleman, the Earl of Lisburne; and took advantage of the coincidence of the birthday of Caroline, Princess of Wales, falling on 1 March, Saint David's Day, to invite her to become the society's patron. The Prince of Wales subsequently agreed to become the society's President, and Jones himself received a knighthood.
Image:Marx Memorial Library 37a Clerkenwell Green.jpg on Clerkenwell Green (now the Marx Memorial Library)]]
The society was launched on Saint David's Day 1715 with prayers and a Welsh sermon at St Paul's church, Covent Garden.Jones 2001, p. 62. Its principal philanthropic endeavour was the British Charity School, established in 1716 to assist impoverished Welsh children in London. The school flourished, and in 1738 acquired its own purpose-built premises on Clerkenwell Green. The main channel by which the Society raised funds for the school was the annual Saint David's Day sermon and associated dinner.
Decline
From the middle years of the 18th century the Society became somewhat lethargic, and it was joined in administering and supporting the school by the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (founded in 1751 with the express aim, at least in part, of lending assistance to the Antient Britons).Jenkins and Ramage 1951, pp. 47-8. The Saint David's Day dinner continued to be held nominally under the auspices of the Antient Britons, but with the support of the Cymmrodorion.Jenkins and Ramage 1951, pp. 72-3. In practice, there was considerable overlap in the membership and officers of the two societies.Jenkins and Ramage 1951, p. 15. The Cymmrodorion lapsed into abeyance in 1787; and the Antient Britons, as an independent society, also appears to have faded away by the end of the 18th century, although the school survived for another two centuries.
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book |first1=R. T. |last1=Jenkins |authorlink1=Robert Thomas Jenkins |first2=Helen M. |last2=Ramage |title=A History of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion and of the Gwyneddigion and Cymreigyddion Societies (1751–1951) |place=London |publisher=Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion |series=Y Cymmrodor |volume=50 |year=1951 |pages=12–15}}
- {{cite journal |first=Rhys |last=Kaminski-Jones |title='Where Cymry united, delighted appear': the Society of Ancient Britons and the celebration of St David's Day in London, 1715–1815 |journal=Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion |series=n.s. |volume=23 |year=2017 |pages=56–68 }}
- {{cite book |editor-first=Emrys |editor-last=Jones |editor-link=Emrys Jones (geographer) |title=The Welsh in London, 1500–2000 |place=Cardiff |publisher=University of Wales Press |year=2001 |isbn=0708317103 |pages=62–3 }}
{{Authority control}}
Category:1715 establishments in England
Category:Welsh diaspora in England