Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion

[6] Regular meetings were held on the first Wednesday of each month, when papers were read on a variety of literary and learned topics.

On his death in 1779, the Society offered a silver medal for the best elegy on its late President, a competition which can be seen as a forerunner of the National Eisteddfod of Wales.

This office was held by William Vaughan of Corsygedol until shortly before his death in 1775, and then by Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet, of Wynnstay.

[9] In the second half of the 18th century the Welsh Charity School was run jointly by the Antient Britons and the Cymmrodorion.

The officers of the Cymmrodorion used the school building on Clerkenwell Green as their business address, sometimes held meetings there, and used one of its rooms as a library.

[10] The library was intended to hold a copy "of every Book that hath ever been printed in the antient British language", as well as manuscripts.

[11] A regular and important activity in the Society's calendar (though primarily the responsibility of the Antient Britons) was the annual Saint David's Day dinner, held to raise funds to support the school.

[13] Therefore, although Hay let Bowles stay in post, the case established the principle that clergy being considered for Welsh-speaking parishes should be examined in their knowledge of Welsh and only those proficient in the language should be inducted to them.

[20] The Society was revived for a second time in 1873, on the initiative of, among others, Hugh Owen, Henry Brinley Richards, and John Griffith ("Y Gohebydd").

[21] It published Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig in 1953, and its English language counterpart, the Dictionary of Welsh Biography in 1959, as well as several supplements.

Reflecting the changing roles of the later incarnations, the motto of the second and third societies has been "Cared Doeth yr Encilion" ("Let the Wise Cherish Antiquity").

He attended a meeting organised by the Cymmrodorion in April 1916, while on leave from the Western Front, to hear W. M. Hughes, then Prime Minister of Australia, and David Lloyd George, then Secretary of State for War, speak.