John Owen Jones (Ap Ffarmwr), c.1890s

Description

John Owen Jones (ap Ffarmwr) was born at Trefdraeth, Anglesey, in 1861. He is best remembered for his unsuccesful attempts to establish a trade union on behalf of farm workers.

Ap Ffarmwr was himself a farmer's son, but although he received some formal education he was largely self-taught. In 1884-5, after periods of study at Aberystwyth and Manchester, he became the first full-time Welsh-language parliamentary correspondent to be employed by a Welsh newspaper in London. His employer, the Welsh National Newspaper Company, published Liberal newspapers such as 'Y Genedl Gymreig' and 'The North Wales Observer and Express'. He returned to Anglesey in the late 1880s to establish a private grammar school at Dwyran and it was during this period that he began voicing his concerns regarding the plight of the tenant farmers of the island. He wrote a number of articles to 'Y Genedl Gymreig' under the pseudonym 'ap Ffarmwr' [farmer's son] in which he called for a reduction in rents, rates and tithes and a fair wage for agricultural labourers. His attempts to establish a union on behalf of the agricultural workers was unsuccessful, however, and in 1894 he left Anglesey for south Wales when he was appointed editor of the 'Merthyr Times'. In 1897 he moved to Nottingham where he died in March 1899. He was buried at Dwyran, Anglesey.

Further reading: David A. Pretty, 'The Rural Revolt that Failed: Farm Workers' Trade Unions in Wales, 1889-1950' (Cardiff, 1989).