Cylchgronau Cymru

THE TRUE IVORITES IN RADNORSHIRE. By W. H. Howse. "HPHE St. David's Unity of True Ivorites is the title of a Friendly Society which traces its origin back to 1836. The earliest Lodges were at Wrexham and Carmarthen ,but it was at the latter place that the Society gained its chief strength, and from there it spread rapidly in South Wales, from 1840 onwards. Lodges were also established outside Wales, both in England and America. One of the primary concerns of the True Ivorites (" Gwir Ivoriad," as they called themselves in Welsh), apart from the ordinary objects of a Friendly Society, was the cultivation and encouragement of the Welsh language. The records of Welsh Lodges were written in Welsh, and the secretaries were expected to be proficient in that language. Eisteddfodau were held under the patronage of the Society, and several attempts were made at establishing a literary and general Welsh magazine (the last apparently in 1851, called Y Gwladgarwr). I am indebted for the above information to Mr. Evan D. Jones, Keeper of MSS and Records at the National Library of Wales. The information has a particular Radnorshire interest, because the files of the Hereford Times disclose the fact that the True Ivorites established themselves in Radnorshire, making it evident that at the time when this happened there was a sufficient interest in the Welsh language to encourage the Society to form Lodges within the county. The King Arthur Lodge at Rhayader appears to have been the first Lodge to be opened in Radnorshire. This observed its annual festival for the second time on 22nd May, 1843. Another second anniversary which caught my eye in the newspaper was that of the St. Mary's Lodge at Abbey Cwmhir, on 29th May, 1845, when, it was stated, brethren from Rhayader and Nantmel attended the proceedings. There may have been a Lodge at Nantmel, though no reference to one was seen. The only other Lodge discovered in the newspaper files was the Lord Nelson Lodge at Painscastle, which kept its first anniversary at the Radnor Arms, Painscastle, on 28th j I April, 1847.