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cartref > Transactions > Volume 31 - 2025 > THE FIRST PROFESSORS OF WELSH – A NOTE

THE FIRST PROFESSORS OF WELSH – A NOTE

In 2014 Janet Davies, in her otherwise impressive The Welsh Language: A History, claimed that the first professorship of Welsh was established at Aberystwyth in 1875, joined soon after by the chair in Celtic at Jesus College, Oxford in 1877, and at Cardiff in 1885.1 This is a remarkable claim as it overlooks the professorship of Welsh at St David’s College, Lampeter from its opening in 1827. It has become a commonplace assumption that Lampeter neglected the study of Welsh in the nineteenth century, and it is often suggested that this led Sir Thomas Phillipps to found Llandovery College and Lady Llanover to regard the College with suspicion.2 Nevertheless from its foundation there was a professorship of Welsh, and the first two holders of the chair deserve to be rescued from neglect.

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