Rev D Lloyd Isaac

Rev David Lloyd ISAAC ( 1818 - 1876 )

Born in Llanwenog, Cardiganshire on 10 Feb. 1818, he was a member of Aberduar (Llanybydder, Carmarthenshire) Baptist church and went to Abergavenny Baptist Academy in 1835 and then on to the newly-opened Baptist College at Pontypool, where his name was the first on the list of students.

In 1838 he became pastor at Neath , and founded new churches at Aberdylais , Glyn Neath , and Pontardawe. However internal disputes arose, and Isaac was suspected of unorthodoxy so in 1841 he moved to Trosnant church in Pontypool .  He took over from John Williams in 1840.  Trosnant Church records that Williams’ death “brought to the church another dramatic figure in David Lloyd Isaac”. Isaac was an antiquary and writer, who ministered to a church now with over two hundred members. His pastorate came to an abrupt end in 1853 when he turned to Anglicanism.  Isaac went to S. David's College, Lampeter where he was ordained as a deacon on the 23 Sept. 1855 at Llandaff and as a priest on the 21 Sept. 1856. He was subsequently licensed to the curacy of Llangattock-juxta-Neath .

In 1858 , he was given the curacy of Llangathen, Carmarthenshire where he served well, building a school and a vicarage , rebuilding a ruined chapel , restoring the church , and increasing the number of communicants.

He was transferred in 1871 to the vicariate of Llangamarch , Brecknock , and died there 31 Jan. 1876 .

Throughout his career, Isaac was an industrious if somewhat unsystematic and uncritical writer on history, antiquities, and philology . When a Baptist , he wrote much in Seren Gomer,  first Welsh-language weekly newspaper. As an Anglican, even in his Lampeter days, he was a regular contributor to Yr Haul , on antiquities and on the translators of the Bible. In 1859 he published  Siluriana , on the history of Monmouthshire and Glamorgan

In  1860 he won an eisteddfod prize for an essay on  Hanes Llanbedr a'r Gymmydogaeth and also published a book on Whitland Abbey .