John Hobson Matthews
John Hobson Matthews (1858–1914) was a Roman Catholic historian, archivist and solicitor. Biography. John Hobson Matthews was born in Croydon in 1858, to Emma Hobson from Great Grimsby and his father from St. Ives. He attended schools in Blackheath and Cambridge and worked in Malta for a short period with a shipping firm. Matthews joined the Roman Catholic church in 1877 and became a solicitor in 1889, subsequently working in Cardiff. As a keen linguist, he edited "Emynau Catholig" (English: 'Catholic Hymns'), translated "Ffordd y Groes" ('The way of the cross') and joined the Welsh Bardic Gorsedd . Matthews also edited the "Cardiff Records, being materials for a history of the County Borough from the earliest times" (1898-1911) and wrote a report on the Monmouthshire County Council records in 1905. He was involved in the transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists Society and, more significantly, the Catholic Record Society, being among the original members of this society. Matthews understood Maltese, Cornish, Irish and Welsh. He married Alice Mary Gwyn-Hughes in 1892, who bore him four sons and two daughters. He died in Ealing on 23 January 1914.