Matthew Rhys has a favour to ask America: celebrate Wales too.
In his Wales.com film for St David’s Day 2026, he points to the Welsh contribution to a country marking 250 years of independence. It’s a playful invitation to look closer at that shared history.
Watch Matthew Rhys’s Wales.com video.
It connects with my notes on Wales, the Welsh and the Making of America by Vivienne Sanders. Here are 30 points, summarised in my own words.
I’ve distinguished Welsh-born people from Americans with Welsh ancestry. The film mentions Prince Madoc; that is a legend, not established evidence of a Welsh discovery of America.
Independence and the founding of America
1. Pennsylvania could have been “New Wales”.
Penn told a Welsh passenger this was his preferred name. Charles II favoured Pennsylvania to honour Penn’s father.
2. Welsh settlers helped build early Pennsylvania.
They established farms, churches and communities whose names survive in places such as Merion and Radnor.
3. Welsh Quakers brought a personal commitment to religious freedom.
Having experienced persecution, they helped build Pennsylvania communities that valued toleration and limits on government interference.
4. David Lloyd challenged concentrated power before the Revolution.
The Welsh lawyer strengthened Pennsylvania’s elected Assembly against its proprietors. His battles foreshadowed the colonies’ later arguments with Britain over who should govern.
5. Richard Price gave the Revolution an influential defence.
His 1776 pamphlet argued for civil liberty and self-government. Sanders reports roughly 60,000 copies sold in Britain that year, with editions circulating internationally.
6. Congress tried to recruit Price to help manage American finances.
In 1778, it invited him to become a citizen and help regulate the new country’s finances. He declined. Price’s reply.
7. Price influenced the founders without visiting America.
He corresponded with Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Rush. Welsh political ideas crossed the Atlantic through letters and pamphlets.
8. John Adams used Welsh history to argue America’s case.
He invoked Welsh resistance to English domination when discussing the colonial conflict. Americans could see a precedent for their struggle in Wales.
9. A man born in Llandaff signed the Declaration of Independence.
Francis Lewis emigrated to America, became a merchant and represented New York.
10. Jefferson recorded his own Welsh family tradition.
He wrote that his father’s family believed their ancestor came from near Snowdon. That documents his belief, rather than proving the entire family tree. Autobiography.
Universities, exploration and political change
11. Yale’s name comes from Welsh family roots.
Boston-born benefactor Elihu Yale’s family was associated with Plas yn Iâl in north Wales. “Yale” is an anglicised form of Iâl. He was a benefactor, not the university’s founder.
12. A Pontypool minister helped establish Brown University.
Morgan Edwards helped secure support and funding for the college that became Brown.
13. A Welsh-American minister helped develop Princeton.
Samuel Davies raised money for the college and became its fourth president. His contribution was fundraising and leadership, rather than founding it himself.
14. The book traces explorer Meriwether Lewis’s family to Wales.
His expedition with William Clark expanded American knowledge of western geography and wildlife. It relied on Indigenous assistance and helped advance expansion that displaced Indigenous nations.
15. Lincoln’s campaign reached voters in Welsh.
David C. Davies produced a Welsh-language campaign biography in 1860. Welsh-speaking Americans were a constituency worth addressing in their own language.
16. Welsh communities contributed to the fight against slavery.
Newspapers, churches and soldiers’ letters reveal committed abolitionism. Sanders also documents Welsh racism, so this was a significant movement within the community, never a universal position.
17. Dan Jones helped bring Welsh settlers to Utah.
His Mormon missionary work encouraged migration from Wales. Those migrants built communities in the American West while maintaining Welsh language and cultural connections.
18. America’s first elected female state senator came from Llandudno.
Martha Hughes Cannon won election in Utah in 1896. A physician, she pursued sanitation improvements and helped establish a state board of health.
Industry and working life
19. Oliver Evans helped make flour cheaper and better.
The Welsh-American inventor automated milling, reducing manual handling and improving production. His equipment spread, and his millwright’s guide remained influential for decades.
20. Evans also built American steam-engine manufacturing capacity.
His Mars Iron Works, established in Philadelphia in 1807, produced engines and machinery for other industries.
21. Welsh iron carried early American trains.
Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil, supplied rails while the US railway network was developing. Part of America’s transport expansion depended on production back in Wales.
22. David Thomas brought Welsh ironmaking expertise to Pennsylvania.
Drawing on his experience at Ynyscedwyn, he helped establish successful anthracite-fuelled iron production. He made a difficult industrial process work commercially in a new setting.
23. Welsh expertise helped Scranton become an industrial city.
Tredegar-born John F. Davis helped overcome problems with its iron furnaces. Welsh workers and their families built businesses and communities around the mines and works.
24. Carnegie depended on a Welsh-American steelmaking innovator.
William “Captain Bill” Jones improved production at the Edgar Thomson works. His inventions, including the hot-metal mixer, helped make steelmaking more efficient.
25. Welsh workers helped industrialise Ohio.
Sanders describes their involvement in furnaces, mines and ironmaking around places such as Youngstown. Skilled workers and business owners spread Welsh expertise across an industrial region.
26. Welsh quarry workers helped build America’s slate industry.
Wales exported slate across the Atlantic. Emigrants later brought quarrying skills to American deposits, supplying material for the roofs and buildings of growing towns.
27. A man from Beddgelert became Toledo’s reforming mayor.
Samuel Milton “Golden Rule” Jones made money in oil and machinery before pursuing shorter working hours, holiday pay and public recreation.
28. Welsh immigrant heritage fed into American organised labour.
John L. Lewis, born in Iowa to Welsh parents, became a major union leader. Through the mineworkers and the CIO, he helped workers organise for better wages and conditions.
Landmarks and culture
29. A Welsh-born donor gave Los Angeles the land for Griffith Park.
Griffith J. Griffith donated 3,015 acres in 1896 and left funds for the observatory and Greek Theatre. His public legacy sits alongside a violent personal history, including shooting his wife. Observatory history, LA record.
30. Frank Lloyd Wright made his Welsh heritage part of his architectural identity.
His mother was Welsh-born. He named his Wisconsin home and studio Taliesin after the Welsh bard, carrying that connection into the place where he lived and designed.