| AdminHistory | Thomas Shankland was a bibliophile and a historian. He was born on 14 October 1858 in the parish of Llanginning, Carmarthenshire. He attended Pwll-trap School. By 1876, he was at Bala working as a shoemaker. There he came into contact with the great men of the area, such as principals Lewis Edwards and Michael D. Jones. In 1879 he was baptised by immersion and in 1882 he began preaching with the Baptists. For a period he went to St. Clears Grammar School, and in 1885 was accepted as a student at Llangollen College. He opted, however, to enter the then new University College of North Wales at Bangor.
Between 1888 and 1891 Shankland was minister at Mold, then from 1891 to 1904 at Rhyl. It is thought that possibly, the turning point of his life was when he visited in October 1900, the old home of Joshua Thomas the historian at Leominster, and examined the manuscripts that still remained there. In 1904 he visited Bangor to reorganise the Welsh Library at the University and in 1905 he began the work of classifying and arranging, and of travelling around the county searching for rare books.
He wrote many articles. In 1898-1899 four of his articles appeared in Seren Cymru on the subject of Morgan John Rhys; he then wrote three articles in Cymru in 1902 on the beginnings of the Sunday School in the Principality. His most substantial work, however, was a series of sixteen articles in Seren Gomer (September 1900-January 1904) in review of Diwygwyr Cymru by Beriah Evans. Shankland was editor of Seren Gomer between 1905-1906, and editor of the Transactions of the Historical Society of the Baptists in Wales from its foundation until 1925. He also contributed a chapter to the Cofiant by Dr. J. T. Griffiths, and a chapter for the Cofiant by David Williams. He was a prominent figure in the founding of 'Cymdeithas Llawysgrifau Bangor' in 1907, and was secretary during its existence. Because of his continuing work he was awarded in 1917, the degree of M.A. 'honoris causa' by the University of Wales.
He became ill in 1925, and died on 20 February 1927. |