Derfel was born Robert Jones on 24 July 1824 on his grandfather's farm between Llandderfel and Bethel in Merionethshire, Wales.

[1] In about 1850, after years without a permanent job, he found work as an odd-job man in drapery warehouses of J. F. and H. Roberts in Manchester.

[1] Seven years after the publication of the 1847 Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the state of education in Wales, he published his 1854 play - Brad y Llyfrau Gleision (The Treason of the Blue Books).

[2][1] In the play he satirised the commission for their derogatory attacks on many aspects of Welsh life including its culture and religion.

[1][2] His political views were heavily influenced by the utopian socialist,[4] Robert Owen, and he wrote the first articles on Socialism in the Welsh language, campaigning for causes such as a university for Wales.