              Copyright
Helen Forder
2004
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Abraham Jeremiah was the
son of William Jeremiah, a farmer at Goitre, and
his wife Martha. William and Martha married in
1804 and had a large family, Abraham being one of
the younger children. They were:-
Mary born 1805; Martha born 1806; Elizabeth and
William, twins born in 1809; John and Richard,
twins born in 1813; Philip born 1816; James born
1817; Ann born 1819; Leah born 1821; Thomas born
1822; Abraham born 1826; Benjamin born
1827; and Isaac born 1829.
William and Martha Jeremiah died about 1865, in
their 80s. |
Abraham became a
carpenter, and he married Elizabeth Harris, the
daughter of John Harris of Raglan, in 1868.
Abraham was one of the pall-bearers at the
funeral of Lord Llanofer in 1867, and on the
first anniversary of the death of her much-loved
husband, Lady Llanofer presented him with a
specially inscribed Welsh bible.
The Monmouthshire Poll Book, 1868, shows Abraham
Jeremiah of Goytrey voting in the polling
District of Blaenavon, Llanover Upper.
In 1880 Abraham was instructed to 'finish off' a
harp for Carl Engel, a German musicologist living
and working in London.
One of Abraham's harps was taken to Patagonia. |
Abraham
Jeremiah's Harp in Patagonia |
The
following is part of a letter (translated from
the original Welsh) written by Mihangel Ap Iwan
to the children of his brother Llwyd.
Mihangel and Llwyd Ap Iwan were the
children of the Rev. Michael D. Jones of Bala.*
'Here is the Harp
which your father and I learned to play when we
were children in Llanofer. Abraham, harp maker to
Lady Llanofer made it and Gruffydd, the blind
harper who was Lady Llanofer's special harper,
and who taught us, believed it to be the best
there was in Llanofer at the time. To
Dafydd Jones, Twyn Carno, go thanks for saving it
from the floods in Camwy in 1899. Your
family had left Bodiwan, you were in the old
country, when the flood came, and Dafydd Jones
rescued what was left in the house and sent them
to Buenos Aires by ship.'
The harp was in
Buenos Aires in the house of Dr. Mihangel ap Iwan
for a long time but came back to Chubut some
years ago now, but unfortunately without strings.
We heard one of Dr. Mihangel's grandsons
say that when he was a child he stole some of the
strings to make a bow and arrow.
The harp is now displayed in the national Museum
in Gaiman.
(Ms. Tegai
Roberts)
*In 1865 a group of nearly two
hundred Welshmen and women, under the leadership
of Michael Jones of Bala, sailed from Liverpool
on the 'Mimosa' to form a Welsh settlement in
Patagonia, southern Argentine. |
| By 1881,
Abraham and his family were living with John
Harris, who was described as Publican and
Carpenter, at the Carpenters Arms, Penperlleny. (Now
the Goitre Arms) |
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