CHARLES LAMB AND THE LLOYDS I THE LLOYDS THE Lloyds, an old and honourable Welsh family, were seated for many generations at Dolobran, in Montgomery. The present members, who are of unusual numerical strength, trace their descent both to the Kings of Dyfed and—through the marriage of Charles Lloyd of Dolobran (1637-1698) with Elizabeth Lortto Edward I. This Charles Lloyd and his brother Thomas were the first Quakers in the family. Like so many of the warriors for spiritual liberty gathered under George Fox's bloodless flag, they did not escape suffering and persecution. Charles Lloyd, indeed, had a full share, for in 1662 he was thrown into prison at Welshpool for refusing to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, B and not for ten years was he at large again. Thither his wife accompanied him, and it was under these distressing conditions that their eldest son Charles was born. Although still an offender, Charles Lloyd was allowed by his judge, Lord Herbert, to leave the prison and remain under inspection and restraint in a house at Welshpool, where his second son, Sampson Lloyd, was born in 1664. Eight years later, on the pronouncement of the royal Declaration of Indulgence, Charles Lloyd was again able to return to Dolobran. His spirit was in no respect broken, and his after life, which did not terminate until 1698, was zealous for the brave little sect he had joined. His first son, Charles Lloyd (1662-1747), who succeeded him at Dolobran, greatly improved the estate, and set up furnaces for the forging of charcoal iron; while the second son, Sampson Lloyd (1664–1724), moved to Birmingham, where he opened an iron warehouse in connection with this new industry, and was able without molestation-for Birmingham was friendly to Nonconformists-to pursue his way as a follower of George Fox. Sampson Lloyd was married twice: first, in 1685, to Elizabeth Good, and secondly, in 1695, to Mary Crowley. By the second wife he had two daughters and four sons, one of whom was Sampson Lloyd, of Birmingham and Farm (1699-1779), ironmaster, and the founder of Lloyds Bank. This Sampson Lloyd also married twice. He wedded first with Sarah Parks, of Birmingham, a union from which sprang Sampson Lloyd (1728-1807), and through him the Lloyds of Farm, of whom the history may be read in the little record called Farm and its Inhabitants,' privately printed for the family in 1883.1 It was this Sampson Lloyd whom Dr. Johnson, who disliked Quakers as a sect, but could be attracted by them individually, visited, with Boswell, in 1776: 'We next,' Boswell wrote, 'called on Mr. Lloyd, one of the people called Quakers. He too was not at home, but Mrs. Lloyd was, and received us courteously, and asked us to dinner. Johnson said to me, "After the uncertainty of all human things at Hector's, this invitation came very well." ' At dinner, Mr. Lloyd having returned, the Doctor, addressing his host and hostess (who had many children), remarked: 'Marriage is the best state for a man in general; and every man is a worse man in proportion as he is unfit for the married state.' Subsequently both the Doctor and Mr. Lloyd were lured into error during a discussion on Baptism. The only other remark of the great man recorded by Boswell was this: The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be |