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Mother Shepherd

Welsh evangelist (1836–1930)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ18530551
Source-derived summary

Pamela Shepherd born Pamela Morgan known as Mother Shepherd (19 March 1836 – 24 February 1930) was a Welsh evangelist for the Salvation Army notably in Aberdare.

Life

Shepherd was born in Talywain in 1836. Her parents were Margaret (born Evans) and Benjamin Morgan and she was the first of their four children. Her father was a blacksmith and a Chartist and her mother was a Baptist from Cardiganshire, moved the family to London in 1845. Her father hoped to work for the Great Western Railway but struggled to find work due to his political views. The family's finances had to depend on her mother, taking in washing, after her father began drinking.

In 1860 she married William Shepherd a carter. The couple remained in London after the rest of her family returned to Wales the following year. Her husband's family helped financially and she worked as a rag sorter and laundress to support her daughters - despite also developing a drinking problem.

She was recruited by the Salvation Army in 1867 after she heard James Dowdle preach.

Editorial summary

“Mother Shepherd” enters the record as welsh evangelist (1836–1930). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mother, Shepherd and Welsh can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1836, 1930, 1845, 1860—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1836-03-19. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Mother, Shepherd and Welsh.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Mother Shepherd” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Mother, Shepherd and Welsh provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18530551. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1836, 1930, 1845 and 1860.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Mother Shepherd”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Mother Shepherd primary sources, Mother Shepherd archive and Mother research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mother Shepherd”?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Mother Shepherd” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.