John Bryn Roberts

Daniel Roberts was later able to buy his own farm at Trefarthen on Anglesey, as well as fourteen cottages at Llanrug, share-holdings in public utilities and part-ownership of a schooner plying the coastal freight-trade.

[2] In 1906 he was appointed a county court judge in Glamorgan, although the possibility of a judgeship had apparently been mooted as early as 1886[5] and he rose to become a Deputy Chairman of Quarter Sessions.

Supporters of his Congregationalist opponent, R Pughe Jones, complained that no meeting of the whole local Liberal Association had been called and that only the delegates, who were predominantly Methodists like Roberts, had been asked for their opinion.

Another issue in the election was an industrial dispute at the Dinorwic Quarry but which was complicated by being interpreted as, as much an attack by the proprietor and local landowner on the religion and class of his workers, as a conflict over wages and conditions.

[9] Despite suffering from a speech impediment which restricted his ability as a political orator, Roberts was an effective enough candidate and the result of the election was a victory over his Conservative opponent, a member of the local squirearchy, Hugh Ellis-Nanney, by 4,535 votes to 2,573 on a turnout of 80%.

Ellis-Nanney later suffered another Parliamentary defeat when he failed to hold the Conservative seat of Caernarvon Boroughs in a by-election held on 10 April 1890 when his opponent was David Lloyd George.

During his time in Parliament, Roberts was a noted orthodox Gladstonian and was hostile to the radical, nationalist group of Welsh MPs like Lloyd George and the supporters of Cymru Fydd.

[19] In the view of John Grigg, Roberts was “too awkward” to succeed, never becoming a minister or rising higher than a county court judge despite having a good political mind and being an excellent lawyer.