Charles Conway (8 February 1820 – 11 June 1884) was a Welsh industrialist, botanist, artist and engraver.[1]
Background edit
Conway was born in Pontnewydd, Monmouthshire, the child of Benjamin Conway (1791–1863), owner of the Pontnewydd tinplate works and Ann (née Evans) his wife. His uncle Charles Conway (1797–1860) had been a botanist and lepidopterist[2][3] who also had a large collection of fossils and a meteorological station at Pontnewydd (and Monmouth);[4] his nephew, Charles Conway (fl.1870), was also an artist, engraver, and botanist. Items from the collections of the three Charles Conways initiated the botanical collection of the National Museum.[5]
The Conway family were prominent members of the Baptists in Monmouthshire, but there was a complaint from the denomination's Welsh-speakers that the presence of an English-speaking family led to too much English being used in the denomination's meetings and services.[6]
Career edit
Conway worked as one of the directors of the Benjamin Conway tinplate company, becoming managing director of the company on his father's death. He was a Justice of the Peace on the Monmouthshire bench[7] and chairman of the Llanfrechfa Local Board. He served on the board of guardians of the Pontypool Poor Union. He was one of the directors of Cwmbran and Pontnewydd Gas Company.[8]
Conway is mostly remembered for his recreational activities. He collected and studied plants, birds, and shells. He was a capable artist, a sculptor, and he decorated vessels, examples of which were exhibited at the Fine Art Exhibition of 1881. Above all he was a superb engraver. His engravings were used to illustrate scientific publications, such as Fossil Flora by John Lindley and Sir William Hooker, Botany by James Sowerby, and also in the publications mainly under Sowerby's direction relating to illustrations of greenhouse plants. He was also very interested in Welsh folklore and collected and published some examples. He won an eisteddfod award in Cardiff for a series of engravings depicting folklore.[9] Shortly before his death he was commissioned to write a series of fairy tales illustrated with engravings for Red Dragon magazine.[10] He began to engrave a series of Monmouthshire trees with the intention of publishing them under the title Silva Silurica but died before finishing the work.[9] This series became part of the T. H. Thomas collection at the National Museums and Galleries of Wales.[11]
Death edit
In 1884, he died unmarried at his home in Pontnewydd aged 64, and his remains were buried in the Conway family burial yard at the Baptist chapel, Pontrhydyrun.[12][13] The Pontnewydd tinplate works went into decline after his death.[14]
References edit
- ^ "CONWAY, CHARLES (1820 - 1884), painter and engraver". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
- ^ Horton, G. A. Neil (1994). Monmouthshire Lepidoptera. Comma International Biological Systems. ISBN 9781897817278.
- ^ Conway, C. (1833). "Sketches of the Natural History of My Neighbourhood". The Magazine of Natural History and Journal of Zoology, Botany, Mineralogy, Geology and Meteorology. VI: 224.
- ^ Transactions of the Meteorological Society, Vol.1. 1839. p. 154.
- ^ "Vascular Plants". Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum Cardiff. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
- ^ "Iaith y Nefoedd Anghydffurfiaeth ar Gymraeg yn Sir Fynwy yn y Bedwaredd Ganrif ar Bymtheg" [The language of heaven : Nonconformity and Welsh in Monmouthshire in the nineteenth century]. Y Traethodydd [The Essayist] (in Welsh). CXLII (602-605): 217. 1987. hdl:10107/1158987 – via National Library of Wales.
- ^ "CHARLES CONWAY, YSW. PONT- NEWYDD". Y Bedyddiwr [The Baptist] (in Welsh). VII (73): 36–37. January 1848. hdl:10107/2056741 – via National Library of Wales.
- ^ "Pontypool: Death of Mr Charles Conway". Weekly Mail. 1884-06-14. hdl:10107/3373167. Retrieved 2022-11-21 – via Welsh Newspapers.
- ^ a b "The late Mr Charles Conway, J.P., of Pontnewydd". Weekly Mail. Henry Mackenzie Thomas. 1884-06-21. hdl:10107/3373176. Retrieved 2022-11-21 – via Welsh Newspapers.
- ^ "LITERARY AND ART NOTES". The Red Dragon, the national magazine of Wales. VI (1): 91. July 1884. hdl:10107/2066125 – via National Library of Wales.
- ^ Darbyshire, Teresa; Williams, Sioned, eds. (2002). Amgueddfa: Yearbook of the National Museums & Galleries of Wales, 2000 - 2002 (PDF). National Museums & Galleries of Wales. p. 42. ISBN 0-7200-0530-2.
- ^ "Monmouthshire Merlin: PONTNEWYDD - The Late Mr Charles Conway". Charles Hough. 1884-06-20. hdl:10107/3407485. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
- ^ Cadw. "Enclosure railings, walls, gatepiers and Memorials at the Conway Burial Yard (81749)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
- ^ "Pontrhydyryn Tin Plate Works Gas Holder (710304)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 18 June 2023.