by later sources. Griffiths himself denied owning a coal level in a series of replies to a Select committee to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in 1810. The committee was examining the petition of South Wales colliery owners concerning tax on coal, Griffiths stated categorically that he has no colliery and nor had he ever owned one. Though many modern sources still reiterate the erroneous fact that Griffiths opened a mine in the Lower Rhondda in 1790. The transport link to the Glamorganshire Canal proved itself when Walter Coffin, who is recognised as the first person to gain personal rights and sink the first deep mines in the Rhondda, obtained rights to use Griffiths' tramroad. Coffin's mine was further up the valley at Dinas, and Coffin needed to build his own four mile tramline to connect his colliery to Griffiths' link at Trehafod. On Griffiths' death the rights to the Trehafod Estate passed to his family and was successfully deep mined by John Calvert in 1851. Griffiths' tramline was used until it was replaced by the Taff Vale Railway in 1841. Bibliography References 1756 births 1826 deaths Welsh industrialists British businesspeople in the coal industry People from Glamorgan 19th-century Welsh businesspeople 18th-century Welsh businesspeople