| Iron-master
|
|
| Thomas Wayne on the death of his father Mathew Wayne (1780-1853), he became manager of the Gadlys Ironworks, which he enlarged and improved, building new forges and mills. Thomas Wayne was also for many years the agent of the canal company, and acted as treasurer and trustee of the Aberdare Turnpike Road Trust. He took a prominent part in building S. Elvan’s church at Aberdare. He gave evidence before the Royal Commission on the Turnpike Roads, after the Rebecca Riots of 1843. On the death of his father in 1853, he became the manager of the Gadlys iron-works, which he enlarged and improved, building new forges and mills. He died. 29 March 1867. He is buried with his wife Ann in the graveyard at St John’s Church Aberdare.
The death of Matthew Wayne, Esq. of Aberdare This gentleman died on Monday last, at the age of seventy-four, of paralysis. In him the commerce of Aberdare has suffered a real loss. No man was more respected-no man more upright and more beloved by his neighbours and workmen, than the deceased. It IS not generally known, but it is a fact worthy of record, that Mr. Wayne was the first man that ever sent coal to Cardiff from the Aberdare basin, being thus the first to open that traffic from which this port, the Taff Vale Railway, and the parish of Aberdare have received an impetus which is quite unparalleled in the history of the coal trade. To him more than to anybody else, Aberdare owes unquestionably its present prosperity, as he it was who first found out, and brought to the notice of the public, the valuable properties of its steam coal. Yet no man went about more unassuming, no man meddled with the affairs of others less, and, we may add, there was no man more straightforward in his commercial transactions, than Mr. Wayne. He was the creator of his own fortune, which he gained by steady perseverance and untiring energy. At his death, he had the satisfaction of seeing around him a family of three sons, greatly respected, filling influential positions, and very largely engaged in the iron, the tin, and the coal trades of this country. We had the pleasure of being intimately acquainted with him and we can satisfactorily sum up his private character in one sentence, that we never heard him speak ill of any man. Even when he had cause to do so, and when others think they may do so innocently and on good grounds, he was invariably silent. If he would say no good of a man, he would say no ill of him. His death was brought on very suddenly. He was struck with paralysis at Cardiff, on his way from London, a fortnight before he died. He never rallied. On Sunday he had a second fit; and on Monday he died, much regretted by the whole parish. |
