Sir Thomas Duncombe Love Jones-Parry, 1st Baronet (5 January 1832 – 18 December 1891) was a Welsh landowner and Liberal politician. He was one of the founders of the Y Wladfa settlement in Patagonia, South America.
Towards the end of 1862 Captain Love Jones-Parry, accompanied by Lewis Jones, left for Patagonia to decide whether it was a suitable area for Welsh emigrants. The trip was largely financed by Jones-Parry, who paid at least £750 from his own pocket. They first visited Buenos Aires where they held discussions with the Interior Minister Guillermo Rawson then, having come to an agreement, they headed south.
They reached Patagonia in a small ship named the Candelaria, and were driven by a storm into a bay which they named "Porth Madryn" after Jones-Parry's estate in Wales. The town which grew near the spot where they landed is now named Puerto Madryn .
Following a favourable report from Jones-Parry and Lewis Jones, a group of 162 Welsh emigrants departed for Patagonia in the ship Mimosa in 1865. Later there was criticism that the report had given too favourable an impression of the area, though the criticism was directed at Lewis Jones rather than Love Jones-Parry.
Sir Love-Jones-Parry married Lady Elizabeth, who built in 1857 the gothic Plas Glyn-y-Weddw manor house in Llanbedrog, now the oldest art gallery in Wales.[5]
References
^History of Plas Glyn y Weddw, Oriel Plas Glyn-Y-Weddw Arts Centre, Llanbedrog, Pwllheli, Gwynedd, Accessed February 24, 2024
^Price, Emyr (2006). "The Radical and Nationalist Apprentice, 1863-1884". David Lloyd George. Celtic Radicals. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 1. ISBN0708319475.