In September 2021 ISWE was pleased to partner with Race Council Cymru to organise a special online event as part of Black History Cymru 365.
The aim of the BHC365 programme was to deliver informative, creative and celebratory events to acknowledge the contributions made by people of African and African-Caribbean descent to local, national and world history and culture, all year round. Everyone, irrespective of ethnicity or colour, is invited to take part in events.
Our event focused on the life and legacy of John Ystumllyn (d.1786), one of the earliest-recorded Black people in north Wales. He is closely associated with the Ystumllyn estate in Criccieth. We know so much about his life thanks to a biography published by Robert Isaac Jones (Alltud Eifion, 1813-1905) in 1888. It is suggested that a member of the Wynn family of Ystumllyn kidnapped John in Africa or the West Indies and brought him back to the estate in Criccieth, where John was baptised and eventually worked as a gardener. In 1768 John married Margaret Gruffydd, one of the maids at Ystumllyn, and they had seven children. John also worked on the Maesyneuadd estate and was eventually provided with a thatched cottage at Nanhyran by Ellis Wynn in recognition of his service to the Ystumllyn family. John died in 1786 and was buried at Ynyscynhaearn churchyard, his gravestone inscribed with an englyn. His published biography suggests much about his life as a Black person in north west Wales, reactions to his presence in the community and his experiences in Welsh society.
The event included a mix of informative talks, creative responses and group discussions on John Ystumllyn’s legacy as Black person living in north Wales.
Speakers included:
- Zehra Zaidi, an international development specialist with an interest in John Ystumllyn.
- Natalie Jones, a Welsh teacher and S4C presenter of Jamaican descent, whose family moved to live in Pwllheli when she was aged 9.
- Audrey West, a visual artist originally from Jamaica, who moved from London to Wales in 2017 to pursue her creative interests.
- Dr Gareth Jones Evans, Lecturer in Religious Studies at Bangor University, whose research interests include the Bible, slavery and religious print culture in nineteenth-century Wales.
The event was hosted by Dr. Marian Gwyn and Dr. Shaun Evans and kindly sponsored by the Arts Council of Wales.
To find out more about John Ystumllyn see Ffion Mair Jones’ article published in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography.