Samuel Roberts
Samuel Roberts (March 6, 1800 – September 24, 1885) was a Welsh preacher, author and social reformer who lived briefly in Scott County and founded the Brynffynon settlement west of Oneida. He lived in Scott County from 1857 to 1867, but was left financially destitute by the Civil War.
Biography
Born March 6, 1800 at the chapel-house Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire, Samuel Roberts was the oldest son of minister John Roberts. He was taught by his father until he was 10, then attended a school at Shrewsbury before returning to his father’s farm to work.
Roberts preached for his father’s church around 1819, then went to the dissenting academy kept by George Lewis at Llanfyllin and later at Newtown. After six years, he was invited in April 1826 to become assistant pastor at his father’s church, and was ordained on Aug. 15, 1827. He was placed in charge of the church in 1834, along with eight chapels of ease. He attended them all with the assistance of his brother, John Roberts (1804-1884).
Social Reformer
Roberts was a pacifist and an abolitionist. He advocated free trade, opposing the Corn Laws. He was an advocate of Welsh disestablishment, and in 1834 organized a drive by Welsh independent churches to pay their chapel debts. In 1840 he became involved in controversy with Lewis Edwards on presbyterianism and independency.
Roberts worked for the London Peace Society, and wrote on the peace issue in several works, including Thoughts on War, addressed to People of All Classes in 1834. In it, he explained that the absolute pacifist line required by the Peace Society of London need not be followed by pacifists in local “auxiliary” societies.
In 1843, Roberts founded a Welsh language journal, Y Cronicl, in which he campaigned for radical causes. He was an advocate of postal reform.
Brynffynon Settlement
After warning his fellow countrymen that many Welshmen were leaving for America in the prime of their life, Roberts began formulating a plan to do just that. He dreamed of a Welsh settlement in America, mostly because of the relatively cheap availability of farmland here, coupled with his disdain for the practices of landlords in his native Wales. His own father had invested significant money into rehabilitating a farm that he leased, only to have his rent doubled.
Roberts joined forces with former Ohio governor William Bebb and Illinois landowner Evan B. Jones, who began searching for available property in America. They secured 40,000 acres of land in Scott, Anderson, Campbell and Morgan counties for Roberts to purchase. He planned to finance his venture by selling small plots to his fellow countrymen, at a cost of a half-crown per acre. Later, he purchased an additional 35,000 acres in Cumberland County.
Bebb and Jones traveled to Tennessee to study the Welsh lands in Spring 1856. On June 20 of that year, Bebb wrote Roberts to inform him that they had decided the settlement should be located “eight miles west of Huntsville in Scott County,” which was a location on Nancy’s Branch near the present-day Toomey Road and O&W Road intersection. The purpose for choosing that specific site was that it had open forests full of timber, was dry with water sources, and had rich farmland. Bebb wrote that “a better place for sheep and cattle could not be imagined.”
Samuel Roberts’ brother, Richard Roberts (1810-1883) arrived at Brynffynon — which means “hill with a spring” — in September 1856. With him was his wife, Anne, and baby daughter, Margaret. Also on the trip were Richard Roberts’ assistant, William “Griffy” Griffith, wife Miriam, and daughter, Betsy.
Samuel Roberts arrived at Brynffynon with a larger party the following spring. Among his group were William Brees and Thomas Humphreys, two Welsh-Americans from Somerset, Ky.
At its peak, Brynffynon had a store, a mill, and its own post office, which was founded in 1865 with Richard Roberts serving as postmaster. However, the settlement was doomed by the Civil War, and collapsed soon thereafter.
The Civil War
Samuel Roberts was an abolitionist, which was not contrary to the beliefs of Scott Countians, although Scott County was technically located in a Confederate state. There were fewer slaves owned in Scott County at the outset of the Civil War than in any other county in Tennessee, and Scott Countians voted against secession by the largest margin of any county in Tennessee, 541-19. Scott Countians later voted to secede from Tennessee, declaring themselves the “Free and Independent State of Scott.”
However, Roberts was also a pacifist, opposing war regardless of circumstances. That put him at odds with his neighbors, many of whom joined the Union army to fight against the rebellion.
Brynffynon was repeatedly raided during the war by soldiers from either side. It was located near the Monticello Road, a main travel route through the area. On one occasion, Confederate soldiers visited Brynffynon specifically to arrest Roberts for aiding Union soldiers who were passing through the area — a charge he did not deny. The soldiers were preparing to hang Roberts when one of them asked exactly where the Welsh settlers had come from. When he was told that they were British, the soldier replied, “that alters matters. If we hang Britishers there will be a hell of a row.” Fearing that angering the British would cause Great Britain to intervene in the war on the Union’s behalf, the Confederates released Roberts and left the community.
However, the war ultimately spelled doom for Brynffynon. Roberts’ journal, along with his claims to the federal government after the war, spelled out how the constant raids on the settlement had a negative impact on the settlers there.
“A good milk cow died because Union troops had taken our hay and fodder,” Roberts wrote on April 26, 1864. Two days later, he wrote: “Another valuable cow died on the same account.” Still later: “Two promising yearlings died on the same account,” and, “30 merino sheep died on the same account.” Roberts’ livestock were literally starving to death because there was nothing to feed them. All that he had owned had been taken by Union soldiers.
Roberts filed an 1871 claim with the U.S. Government, seeking relief for items that had been taken from him during the war. He was a meticulous records-keeper, and his petition to the federal government represents the clearest evidence of the atrocities committed by Union soldiers in Scott County after their arrival in 1863 as they marched on Knoxville to liberate East Tennessee from the Confederacy.
Roberts’ first record of wartime losses came in August 1861, when he said he provided dinner to eight refugees who were scouting for the Union army. Five days later, he said he provided bread, coffee and pasture to 100 Union soldiers traveling south from Kentucky. Two days after that, he provided lunch to 25 Union recruits who were headed to Kentucky. As the war progressed, his records indicate that he was becoming more strained by the frequent guests who stopped at his farm, and his hospitality eventually turned to plundering by soldiers from either side. In July 1863, a cavalry company took 24 bundles of wheat for their horses. Four days later, the same company returned for what remained of his wheat. When Burnside’s army marched through a month later, they took all of his hay. It was that winter that his livestock began to die. “Our two horses starved to death because Union soldiers had carried away our fodder,” he wrote in January 1864. “Joe died January 15, Dick died January 21.” That same month, Wolford’s Cavalry — the 1st Kentucky regiment under the command of Col. Frank Wofford — showed up at the farm and took corn and fodder for their horses. On February. 18, 1864, a Michigan cavalry regiment stopped, taking forage and fodder for 56 horses, and burning Roberts’ fence rails for their fires. On May 9, 1864, Wolford’s Cavalry returned and pastured 24 horses on Roberts’ farm. When they left, they took three bushels of wheat that Roberts had at William Rosser’s nearby mill. They were back again a week later, and Roberts noted: “Woolford’s cavalry generally treated us very roughly.”
Things got worse for Roberts as the war progressed. Soldiers carried away still more wheat in July 1864, and the next month soldiers stole his fowling gun, two rifles, two pistols, gun powder, and flasks. They also took 10 sheepskins to use for saddle covers, and other equipment, like bridles and stirrups.
The war ruined Roberts. He made request after request for reimbursement from the federal government, but they were ignored.
Late life and death
Financially destitute due to the war, Samuel Roberts left Brynffynon — along with his brother, Richard — in 1867. Together, they returned to Wales. The remaining Welsh settlers moved to Knoxville, Tenn., or to Coal Creek in Anderson County. Samuel Roberts returned to Scott County in 1870 to negotiate the sale of his property, then left for good.
Roberts continued to advocate along political and religious lines. He concentrated on congregational principles of self-government against attempts to organize the independent churches of Wales along presbyterian lines. He started a newspaper called Y Dydd in 1868 and another called Y Celt in 1878.
Roberts died on Sept. 24, 1885 and was buried in a shared grave with his brothers, John Roberts and Richard Roberts, at Conway Cemetery. A memorial tablet was placed in his honor at Llanbrynmair chapel.