page_title: Ann Griffiths
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Ann Griffiths / Biography
caption_attribution_description: 1 negative&#160;: glass, dry plate, b&amp;w&#160;; 16.5 x 12 cm.
context_page_description: Ann Griffiths was a Welsh poet and writer of Methodist Christian hymns. Her poetry reflects fervent evangelical Christian faith and thorough scriptural knowledge.
context_section_description: Ann was born in April 1776 near the village of Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa, six miles (10 km) from the market town of Llanfyllin in the former county of Montgomeryshire (now in Powys). She was the daughter of John Evan Thomas, a tenant farmer and churchwarden, and his wife, Jane. She had two older sisters, an older brother, John, and a younger brother, Edward. Her parents' house, Dolwar Fechan, was an isolated farmhouse some two and a half miles (4 km) south of Llanfihangel and one mile (1.6 km) north of Dolanog, set among hills and streams.
  Not far away lay Pennant Melangell, where Saint Melangell had lived as a hermit in the 6th century.
  Ann was brought up in the Anglican church. In 1794, her mother died when she was 18, and about that time or perhaps earlier she followed her brothers John and Edward in being drawn to the Methodists. In 1796 she joined the Calvinistic Methodist movement after hearing the preaching of Benjamin Jones of Pwllheli.
  After the deaths of both her parents, she married Thomas Griffiths, a farmer from the parish of Meifod and an elder of the Calvinistic Methodist church. However, she died after childbirth in August 1805, at the age of 29, and was buried on 12 August 1805 at Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa.
  Ann Griffiths left a handful of stanzas in the Welsh language. These were preserved and published by her mentor, the Calvinistic Methodist minister, John Hughes of Pontrobert, and his wife, Ruth, who had been a maid at Ann Griffiths' farm and was a close confidante.
caption: A letter in the hand of Ann Griffiths
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