Marriage and more
On Wednesday, 24 May 1876, Timothy married Emma Maddox (b. 1850), the eldest child of Isaac and Mary Maddox, of Owlbury, Bishop’s Castle and Plas Madoc. I am told Emma (left) inherited five farms, ten cottages as well as Owlbury Hall and Plas Madoc (1000-1500 acres) and she owned the mill at Snead. She and Timothy had six children: Morgan Maddox, born 21 February 1877, Nesta Mary, born 1878, Llewelyn Issac Gethin, born 31 March 1879 [St. Asaph, 1879 2nd qt], Hugh, born in 1882 [St. Asaph, 1882, 1st qtr], John Gurth, born 2 August 1883 and Gwendolen Morfydd, born in 1887 [St Asaph 1887, 2nd qt]. The family name became ‘Morgan-Owen’ though civil records sometimes appear under the name of ‘Owen’.
In 1877 Timothy transferred to the Flint and Denbigh District on a salary of £1500 a year. The district included Adwy Coedpoeth British School where children of his sister, Sarah Ann Shelby, were taught. Its log/diary has many mentions of Timothy and on one occasion Emma presented the school prizes. (Click here to see extracts from this log.)
Timothy was very much of the upper classes with great self-assurance and a degree of arrogance; in church in Montgomery he sat as ‘the squire’ in front of the pulpit and hummed if the vicar said something with which he disagreed. If the sermon lasted more than ten minutes he would take out his watch and tap it. When the congregation stood for the vicar, he remained seated, being of the opinion that he was at least the vicar’s equal (amongst other things Timothy had better degrees!).
Throughout his adult life Timothy took an active and prominent part in local life. He sat on the Montgomeryshire Bench as a JP serving in the magistrates’ courts and at the County Quarter Sessions. At the Eisteddfod Gafeirol Mon in August 1878, he was an adjudicator and also gave an address. He was extremely patriotic and demonstrated this whenever occasion permitted. He celebrated the Queen’s Jubilee with a huge bonfire on the Voel, one of the Clwydiau peaks. In 1894 Prince Edward (later Edward VII) and Princess Alexandra visited Rhyl to lay a foundation stone and Timothy organised a tea and concert for about five hundred of the neighbourhood’s aged poor. In 1911, he was chosen to represent TCD at the laying of the foundation stone of the National Library of Wales by King George V and Queen Mary, an occasion marked by a twenty-one gun salute from an eight warship flotilla in Cardigan Bay.