About the Almanack (bi-lingual)
This example of Goldsmith’s Almanack was a new year present to ‘Miss Mary Allsop’ by Robert Owen signed and dated 1st January 1850. Mary Lamb Allsop, born in 1836, would have been 14 at the time, so this would have been quite a ‘grown up’ present from the 79 year old Owen to the daughter of one of his long term friends and supporters.
Thomas Allsop (1795-1880) lived with his family in Middlesex in 1850 whilst Owen was based in Kent, though Owen frequently travelled to London, often staying at Cox’s Hotel in Jermyn Street. Thomas Allsop had been an important supporter of both the writer Charles Lamb and the poet Samuel Coleridge, naming his children after Lamb and his sister Mary, and editing the Letters, Conversations and Recollections of S.T. Coleridge (1864). Allsop had been corresponding with Owen since at least 1830 and was present at Owen’s funeral in Newtown in 1858. He was a radical ‘rationalist’ and objected, as the letter he wrote to another of Owen’s friends and supporters, George Holyoake shows, to Owen being buried in the churchyard, saying that “It pained me deeply that such a man, after life had departed, should pass into, or rather under, the mummery of an outworn creed, which it had been the great labour of his life to expose and destroy”. (This is clearly a misunderstanding of Owen’s approach to religion).
Although Robert Owen was not involved in the Chartist movement for parliamentary reform from the late 1830s, Thomas Allsop, like many of the ‘Owenites’ was, regularly corresponding with the Chartist leaders Bronterre O’Brien and Feargus O’Connor; indeed when O’Connor was elected MP for Nottingham, Allsop gave him his property qualification, then necessary by law. Newtown and Llanidloes were important centres of early Chartism in Wales; a memorial to the local Chartist, Thomas Powell (1802-1862) can be found in St Mary’s churchyard, close to Owen’s tomb.
Mary later moved to Dorset and is recorded as living in Melcombe Regis (now Weymouth) in the 1861 Census. She died, a spinster, in 1867. Thomas Allsop left his papers to George Holyoake (often seen as the first historian of the Co-operative Movement) after his death. Thomas’s eldest son, Robert (1825-1893) named his son, born in 1865, Robert Owen Allsop, so the family connection continued even after the deaths of both Robert Owen and Thomas Allsop.
Almanac Allsop
Roedd yr enghraifft hon o Almanack Goldsmith yn galennig i ‘Miss Mary Allsop’ gan Robert Owen a lofnodwyd, dyddiedig 1afIonawr 1850. Byddai Mary Lamb Allsop, a anwyd yn 1836, wedi bod yn 14 oed ar y pryd, felly byddai hyn wedi bod ynanrhegystyrlono’r Owen 79 oed i ferch un o’i ffrindiau a’i gefnogwyr hir-dymor.
Roedd Thomas Allsop (1795-1880) yn byw gyda’i deulu yn Middlesex ym 1850 tra bod Owen wedi’i leoli yng Nghaint, er bod Owen yn teithio’n aml i Lundain, yn aml yn aros yng Ngwesty Cox’s yn Jermyn Street. Roedd Thomas Allsop wedi bod yn gefnogwr pwysig i’r awdur Charles Lamb a’r bardd Samuel Coleridge, gan enwi ei blant ar ôl Lamb a’i chwaer Mary, a golygu Llythyrau, Sgyrsiau ac Atgofion S.T. Coleridge (1864). Roedd Allsop wedi bod yn gohebu ag Owen ers o leiaf 1830 ac roedd yn bresennol yn angladd Owen yn y Drenewydd ym 1858. Roedd yn ‘resymegydd’ radicalaidd ac yn gwrthwynebu, fel yn y llythyr ysgrifennodd at un arall o gyfeillion a chefnogwyr Owen, George Holyoake, bod Owen yn cael ei gladdu ym mynwent yr Eglwys, gan ddweud “Fe boenodd fi’n ddwfn y dylai’r fath ddyn, ar ôl bywyd ymadael, basio i mewn, neu’n hytrach dan, ‘mymeri’, a fu’n llafur mawr ei fywyd i’w ddatgelu a dinistrio”. (Mae’n amlwg fod hyn yn gamddealltwriaeth o agwedd Owen at grefydd).
Er nad oedd Robert Owen yn ymwneud â mudiad y Siartwyr dros ddiwygio’r Senedd o ddiwedd yr 1830au, roedd Thomas Allsop, fel llawer o’r ‘Owenites’, yn cyfathrebu’n rheolaidd gydag arweinwyr y Siartwyr, Bronterre O’Brien a Feargus O’Connor; yn wir pan etholwyd O’Connor yn AS dros Nottingham, rhoddodd Allsop ei gymhwyster eiddo iddo, adeg yna’n angenrheidiol yn ôl y gyfraith. Roedd y Drenewydd a Llanidloes yn ganolfannau pwysig i Siartiaeth gynnar Cymru; gellir gweld cofeb i’r Siartydd lleol, Thomas Powell (1802-1862) ym mynwent Eglwys y Santes Fair, ger beddrod Owen.
Yn ddiweddarach symudodd Mary i Dorset a chofnodir ei bod yn byw ym Melcombe Regis (Weymouth bellach) yn Cyfrifiad 1861. Bu farw, yn ddibriod, yn 1867. Gadawodd Thomas Allsop ei bapurau i George Holyoake (a welir yn aml fel hanesydd cyntaf y Mudiad Cydweithredol) ar ôl ei farwolaeth. Enwodd mab hynaf Thomas, Robert (1825-1893) ei fab, a aned yn 1865, Robert Owen Allsop, felly parhaodd y cysylltiad teuluol hyd yn oed ar ôl marwolaethau Robert Owen a Thomas Allsop.
Installation of the new display holding the almanac and a digital photo frame to display contents of the almanac. Showing work of Rex Shayler (Curator) and Andy Newham (IT Contractor) on Monday 6th March, 2023