Ann was born in April 1776 near the village of
Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa, from the market town of
Llanfyllin in the former county of
Montgomeryshire (now in
Powys). She was the daughter of John Evan Thomas, a
tenant farmer and churchwarden, and his wife, Jane. She had two older sisters, an older brother, John, and a younger brother, Edward. Her parents' house, Dolwar Fechan, was an isolated farmhouse some south of Llanfihangel and north of Dolanog, set among hills and streams. Ann was brought up in the Anglican church. In 1794, her mother died when she was 18, and about that time or perhaps earlier she followed her brothers John and Edward in being drawn to the Methodists. In 1796 she joined the
Calvinistic Methodist movement after hearing the preaching of Benjamin Jones of
Pwllheli. After the deaths of both her parents, she married Thomas Griffiths, a farmer from the parish of
Meifod and an elder of the Calvinistic Methodist church. However, she died after childbirth in August 1805, at the age of 29, and was buried on 12 August 1805 at St Michael's church in Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa. Ann Griffiths left a handful of stanzas in the
Welsh language. These were preserved and published by her mentor, the Calvinistic Methodist minister, John Hughes of
Pontrobert, and his wife, Ruth, who had been a maid at Ann Griffiths' farm and was a close confidante. ==Poetry==