both in Glamorganshire. Sion Mowddwy, a contemporary, says he was an usher in the Glamorgan court of great sessions, but he gained his living mostly by transcribing Welsh manuscripts for Glamorganshire gentlemen, and had access to the libraries at Raglan, Y Vann, and other places. About 1575 he is mentioned under the name Lewelyn John by Sir Edward Mansel in his 'History of the Norman Conquest of Glamorgan,' as a learned and diligent collector of Welsh manuscripts. Llywelyn died in 1616. He presided at the session ('gorsedd') of the bards of Glamorgan at Tir Iarll in 1580, and was commissioned to collect and to reduce to writing the traditional lore of that bardic order. These were utilised by Iolo Morganwg (Edward Williams) in the preparation of his 'Cyfrinach y Beirdd,' published after his death by his son Taliesin Williams in 1829. A further instalment, termed ' Barddas,' was printed with a translation for the Welsh Manuscript Society in 1862. Several of his compilations are published in Iolo MSS., and on them are based most of the pretensions of neo-druidism to the possession of esoteric doctrines of great antiquity. One of his manuscripts which Iolo Morganwg said he had copied from an original (since lost) contained an account of an ancient Welsh bardic alphabet, called Coelbren y Beirdd, of which a full account is given by Taliesin Williams in a work bearing that title (Llandovery, 8vo), but the genuineness of such an alphabet is open to the gravest doubt.
[Iolo MSS. 45, 49, &c.; Owen's Cambrian Biography; Coelbren y Beirdd, by Taliesin Williams, pp. 15-22; Cyfrinach y Beirdd, pp. 1-6; Skene's Four Ancient Books of Wales, i. 29, 30.]
LOBB, EMMANUEL (1596–1671), Jesuit. [See Simeon, Joseph.]
LOBB, STEPHEN (d. 1699), nonconformist divine, was the son of Richard Lobb, M.P., of Liskeard, Mill Park, Warleggan, and Tremathick, St. Neots, Cornwall. In 1681 he settled in London as pastor of the independent congregation in Fetter Lane. He was accused of being concerned in the Rye House plot, and with another minister named Casteers arrested in Essex and committed to prison in August 1683 (Luttrell, Relation of State Affairs, 1857, i. 273, 275). After James II had issued his declaration for liberty of conscience (4 April 1687), Lobb was one of the ministers selected by the independents to present an address of thanks to him. His frequent attendance at court, for which he was sometimes called the 'Jacobite Independent,' led the church party to accuse him of promoting a repeal of the Test Act. When on 23 Sept. 1688 Grocers' Hall was opened by the lord major, Lobb preached the sermon (ib. i. 462). In 1694 he was chosen to fill one of the vacancies, occasioned by the exclusion of Daniel Williams, among the lecturers at the Pinners' Hall. He died on 3 June 1699. By the daughter of Theophilus Polwhele, nonconformist minister at Tiverton, Devonshire, he had three sons, Stephen (d. 1720), who conformed and became chaplain of Penzance Chapel, Cornwall, and vicar of Milton Abbot, Devonshire; Theophilus [q. v.]; and Samuel (d. 1760), who also conformed and obtained the rectory of Farleigh, Hungerford, Wiltshire. Mrs. Lobb died in 1691.
In conjunction with John Humfrey [q. v.] Lobb wrote in 1680 an 'Answer ... by some Nonconformists ' to a sermon preached by Dr. Edward Stillingfleet on the mischief of separation. Stillingfleet replied the same year in ' The Charge of Schism Renewed.' Lobb and Humfrey thereupon retorted with a 'Reply to the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet,'
Lobb took a prominent part in the controversy between the presbyterian and independent denominations occasioned by the republication of Tobias Crisp's 'Works' with 'Additions' in 1690. To counteract what he considered to be Crisp's erroneous doctrine, Daniel Williams published in 1695 'A Defence of Gospel Truth.' Lobb joined issue with Williams in 'A Peceable Enquiry into the nature of the present controversie among our United Brethren about Justification,' pt. i. 8vo. London, 1693. Williams having briefly replied, Lobb published 'A Vindication of the Doctor, and myself' 4to, London, 1695. Lobb next wrote 'A Report of the present state of the differences in Doctrinals between some Dissenting Ministers in London,' 8vo, London, 1697. This was answered during the same year by Vincent Alsop in 'A Faithful Rebuke to a False Report.' Lobb rejoined with a 'Defence' of his 'Report' and 'Remarks' on Alsop's 'Rebuke' which was in turn castigated by Williams in 'The Answer to the Report,' &c., 1698. At length Lobb sent forth 'An Appeal to Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Edwards concerning Christ's Satisfaction,' 8vo, London, 1698, in which he insinuated that Williams and Richard Baxter favoured Socinianism. Stillingfleet in his admirable reply intimated that the dispute in his opinion was idle and profitless. Lobb, however, still pursued the controversy in 'A further Defence' of his ' Appeal,' and it was closed by Williams in a pamphlet called 'An End to Discord.' An anonymous disciple of Baxter disposed of
