1774 - Mari'r Fantell Wen (Mary Evans Whitemantle)
Mary Evans, known as Mari'r Fantell Wen (1735? – 28 October 1789), was a confidant who founded a Christian cult in north-west Wales in the second half of the 18th century.
Our main source for her history is the book Mirror of the Times by Robert Jones, Rhos-lan.
Mari was a native of Anglesey but settled in the parish of Maentwrog, Gwynedd. It is said that she left her husband and courted another married man and had a daughter by him.
She believed that she was engaged to Jesus Christ and that anything done for her sake was tantamount to doing something on behalf of Jesus himself. A number of people from the old county of Caernarvonshire joined in her cult, and in the areas of Ffestiniog, Penmachno and the Harlech area in Ardudwy. It is possible that the great, great grandfather of T. Gwynn Jones, a gentleman from Penmachno, was a follower of Mari.
Like the followers of the English prophetess Joanna Southcott, her followers believed she would never die. A wedding, and a wedding feast was arranged between her and Jesus Christ in Ffestiniog and hundreds of people attended. Mari wore a magnificent mantle, a gift from her followers. This was described as "frivolity" - the marriage took place on the Sabbath - and "foolishness" by Robert Jones in The Mirror of Times.
Mari died in 1789 in Talsarnau. Her folllowers refused to believe this and her body was kept for some time before she was finally buried in the churchyard at Llanfihangel-y-Traethau, Merioneth.