James Buckley (priest)

The Ven. James Rice Buckley , BD (28 January 1849 – 8 September 1924)^[1] was Archdeacon of Llandaff from 1913^[2] until his death.^[3]

He was educated at Carmarthen Grammar School^[4] and St David's College, Lampeter; and ordained in 1872. After a curacy in Neath he was Vicar of Llandaff from 1878 to ^[5] 1913. He was later a Surrogate for the Diocese of Llandaff ;^[6] then its Rural Dean.^[7]

There is a statue of him on Llandaff’s Cathedral Green.^[8]

His grandfather, the Reverend James Buckley (1770 – 1839) from Oldham, Lancashire, married Maria, the daughter of Henry Child, in 1798 and developed the Buckley’s brewery in Llanelli that her father had started in 1769. When he died, his second son, also named James Buckley, managed the company, and passed it to his sons, the James Buckley of this article, and William, in 1883.

There is a Buckley’s beer, brewed to a traditional recipe, named “Rev. James”. Brains Brewery, who bought Buckley’s brewery, (then called Crown Buckley), in 1997, state that their Rev. James ales are named in honour of the senior Reverend James Buckley, “saver of souls and satisfier of thirsts”.

For more details of the Buckleys and the brewery, see Coflein

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