Full Project Title: 'The life of Thomas Edward Ellis, MP for Merioneth 1866-1899 and his contribution to the political life of Wales'
Doctoral Researcher: Ieuan Wyn Jones
Supervised by: Dr Mari Wiliam and Dr Lowri Ann Rees
Ieuan’s research project will assess the contribution made by Thomas Edward Ellis, the MP for Merioneth 1866-1899, to the political life of Wales. It will look afresh at his life by studying material not available to previous biographers or not used by them. It will cast an objective eye on his contribution to the re-awakening of national consciousness in Wales in the final quarter of the nineteenth century. Ieuan will consider the impact of the Treachery of the Blue Books (1847), the religious revival of 1859, the land question, education controversies, the place of the Welsh language, the lack of national institutions, Church Disestablishment, and the nascent ideas on a Welsh Parliament or Assembly. Tom Ellis’ role in the creation of the Cymru Fydd movement and his leadership qualities leading to the sobriquet ‘the Parnell of Wales’ will be critically examined and the influence of Irish nationalists such as Michael Davitt and Italian nationalists such as Giuseppe Mazzini on his political ideas.
Ieuan’s research will also look at the close relationship between nonconformity and Liberal radicalism in Tom Ellis life and work and the extent to which Christian socialism influenced his thinking following his time in New College Oxford as an undergraduate. Ieuan will also examine his early and consistent approach to extending the franchise to women. The research will also look at his controversial decision to accept a post in the Liberal Government as a whip following the election in 1892, examine his reasons for doing so and whether the criticism he attracted was fair and balanced. His friendship with the controversial South African politician Cecil Rhodes and his ideas for a Welsh Parliament subordinate to the Imperial Parliament along the lines advocated by Rhodes will be assessed anew. Ieuan’s thesis will consider the argument that Tom Ellis’ legacy in reawakening national consciousness in Wales led to a period where Wales’ future as a nation was part of the political discourse for the first time in centuries. Indeed, it will also consider the extent to which his actions influenced later politicians and whether that discourse led to the constitutional changes of the late twentieth and early twenty first century.
Recent activity: Paper published in Transactions of the Anglesey Antiquarians’ Society on the history of Anglesey’s MPs between 1800-1945 and participated in a ISWE seminar on the impact of the 1868 election.
