Richard Llwyd, generally known in North Wales as the Bard of Snowden, and Author of “Beaumaris Bay,” two volumes of poems, &c., was born at Beaumaris, in the Isle of Anglesea, in 1752, and terminated a life devoted to the interest and literature of his country, on the 29th December, 1834, at his residence in Bank-place, Chester. The morning of his days was clouded with adversity. While yet a child, his father, who traded on the coast in a small vessel of his own, was shipwrecked, and lost at once his vessel, his cargo, and his life!—a calamity which plunged his surviving family in hopeless poverty and distress. The extreme poverty of his mother precluded her from giving Richard any education. Nevertheless, in early life his propensities for knowledge discovered itself in a variety of ways, and in spite of the obstacles with which he was surrounded, gave an early promise of the brightness and ardour of his genius, and that greatness of character in which he afterwards so eminently distinguished himself. There was, fortunately for him, at Beaumaris, a free-school, founded by Mr. David Hughes, a man born, like himself, in the vale of humility, but who afterwards became a blessing to his native island. Hence he says in one of his notes to “Gayton Wake,” I received an education of nine months, and I acknowledge this blessing with humble gratitude as it has been to me an inexhaustible source of happiness. At twelve years old, his mother gladly accepted a situation for him in the service of Henry Morgan, Esq., of Henblas. Here he remained several years, and here it was that his character was formed; he had not many opportunities of gratifying his insatiable thirst for reading, but such as he had he availed himself of, with unremitting zeal and ardour. He always rose at a very early hour, and devoted the time he thus gained to reading and studying. In temperance and frugality he was remarkable through life, and always studied and practised it with the utmost exactness, which gave him a constant feeling of dignified independence. In the year 1780 Mr. Lloyd entered into the service of Mr. Griffith, of Caer Rhûn, near Conway, as superintendent of a large demesne and family. Mr. Griffith being in the commission of the peace, and the only acting magistrate in an extensive district, Llwyd acted as his clerk; this situation offered him an opportunity of pursuing his favourite studies. Here he lived until Mr. Griffith died, and with what he had saved, aided by bequeaths from two friends, he retired from the world. In 1797 he published his poem of “Beaumaris Bay,” which was extremely well received by the public, and materially added to his pecuniary resources. Mr. Llwyd had successfully studied the antiquities of his country, and was exceedingly well versed in heraldry, which added to his native vivacity, wit, and good humour, made his company courted by the first families in the principality, at whose mansions he was always a welcome guest. In 1804 Mr. Llwyd published his “Gayton Wake,” and two volumes of poems, “Tales, Ode,” &c., translated from the British, which show the extent and variety of his genius, and which met with extensive encouragement. In 1814 he married Miss Bingley, daughter of the late Alderman Bingley, of the city of Chester, with whom he lived happily in comfortable independence, and whom he survived about twelve months.
William Maurice of Cevyn-y-Briach, in Denbighshire, a distinguished antiquary and the assistant of Mr. Robert Vaughan, of Hengwrt, in collecting old Welsh manuscripts. The collection made by Mr. Maurice is now preserved at Wynnestay. He died about the year 1660.
William Middleton, sometimes called in Welsh, Gwilym Ganoldrev, an eminent poet and grammarian of the family of Gwenynog, in Denbighshire, who lived from the year 1560 to 1600. He served in the armies of Elizabeth, and was afterwards a captain of a ship of war; and, it is worthy of notice, that the principal work that he left behind him was done at sea, being an elegant “Version of the Psalms,” in the higher kind of Welsh metre. This work we find, from a note at the end of it, was finished January 24th, 1595, in the West Indies, and was printed after his death by Thomas Salusbury in 1603. The only other performance of this author which has been printed is his “Grammar,” and “Art of Poetry,” which he published in the year 1593.
Richard Morris, a brother of Lewis Morris, of Penros Llugwy, Anglesea, an ingenious Welsh critic and poet. He passed the greater part of his life as first clerk in the Navy-office; during which, he superintended the printing of two valuable editions of the Welsh Bible. He died in the year 1779.
Paul Panton, Esq., of Plas Gwyn, in Anglesea, a character distinguished for his acquaintance with the history and antiquities of his native country, and who left behind him a valuable collection of Welsh manuscripts; but who was more conspicuous for his liberality in aiding others, who pursued a similar track with himself. In addition to his own collection of papers, he also became possessed of the books of the Rev. Evan Evans, author of the Desertatio de Bardis, and other things, in consequence of having settled an annuity of £20. on that child of misfortune, towards the close of his life. Mr. Panton died in 1797, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.
William Parry, some time president and theological tutor at Wymondley Academy, Herts, was born in the year 1754, at Abergavenny, in Monmouthshire. When he was about seven years of age, he removed with his father to London, where he attended the ministry of Dr. Samuel Stennett. At the age of twenty, he was introduced to the Academy of Homerton, where Mr. Parry remained during six years, pursuing with unremitting ardour, the studies to which he had devoted himself. On leaving the academy, he acceded to an invitation from the church of Little Baddow, Essex, where he was ordained in the year 1780. In the year 1798 proposals were made to Mr. Parry by the trustees of W. Coward, Esq., to become theological tutor in the Dissenting Academy which had for some years been conducted at Northampton and Daventry, by Doctors Doddridge and Ashworth. An earnest desire of extended usefulness led Mr. Parry to accept those proposals; and in the year 1799 he took an affectionate farewell of his beloved flock at Baddow, after having laboured amongst them for twenty years, with great acceptance and fidelity. Mr. Parry entered on his new and important office at Wymondley (to which place the academy was removed). In undertaking the office of tutor, Mr. Parry did not resign that of a minister of Christ: immediately after his settlement at Wymondley, a small chapel was erected on the premises, where a congregation was raised, and a church formed, over which he presided as pastor till the time of his decease. With the exception of a charge delivered at the ordination of one of his students, Mr. Parry appeared but once in the character of an author. He died in the year 1818, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.
William Owen Pughe, D.C.L., was born at Ty’n y Bryn, in the parish of Llanvihangel y Pennant, county of Meirioneth, on the 7th of August, 1759. A man who is, by universal consent, pronounced the greatest literary character which old Cambria has ever produced at any period of time; and this may be truly said, without detracting from the unfading renown of our Taliesins, Aneurins, Gwalchmais, Cynddelws, Hywel Ddas, Goronwy Owens, or any other Cambrian author, because they did not exercise their talents, however great, in so varied and rich a field, or so extensive and bright a sphere as Dr. Owen Pughe. The family removed to Egryn, in Ardudwy, a short period after his birth, and there he passed his youthful days until he was sent to school at Altringham, near Manchester; and when arrived at seventeen years of age, he settled in London. Here he became intimate with Owain Myvyr and others, members of the Gwyneddigion; and projected and commenced his great work, the “Welsh and English Dictionary.” He laboured, at intervals, upon this arduous undertaking for the space of eighteen years, during which he read all the remains of antiquity which could be procured to furnish materials to incorporate in this thesaurus of the words of the Welsh language. In conjunction with Owain Myvyr and Iolo Morganwg he became engaged in a work, which must elicit the warmest thanks of all Welsh scholars, intended to perpetuate, for the benefit of posterity, the existing documents of the Cymry to the close of the thirteenth century. This splendid memorial of patriotism and industry is entitled the Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales, and has afforded a facility for the study of British Antiquities, which will place this department of the history of our island on a sure basis. The Cambrian Biography, the translation of the works of Llywarchhen, and an agricultural treatise for Mr. Johnes, of Havod, the superintendence of the Cambrian Register, the Greal, the edition of the poems of Davydd ap Gwilym, and numerous important communications to such works as Rees’ Encyclopædia, Warrington’s History of Wales, Hoare’s History of Wiltshire, Britton’s Beauties of England and Wales, Campbell’s Books on Wales, Gunn’s Tracts, Meyrick’s Cardiganshire, Cox’s Publications, Chalmer’s Caledonia, were the fruit of his studies and indefatigable perseverance at this period. In the year 1806, an estate in Wales devolved to him, where, after intervals spent in London, he finally settled. During this retirement he translated “Milton’s Paradise Lost,” “Heber’s Palestine,” many of Mrs. Heman’s poetical pieces, &c., into Welsh, and the “Mabinagion,” &c., into English, besides many original productions of great merit. The University of Oxford, as a testimony of estimation for his arduous and useful labours, conferred on him the degree of D.C.L. He breathed his last at Dolydd y Cae, a house at the base of Cader Idris, where he had spent a few days in the same tranquil manner as had distinguished him through life, on the 4th of June, 1835; thus closing a life useful to his country, and endeared to his family and friends, at the foot of the same mountain which had witnessed his birth. A subscription has been entered into for the purpose of raising a fund to defray the expense of erecting a monument to the memory of the erudite and amiable William Owen Pughe.
Dr. David Powel, an eminent antiquary of Denbighshire, born about the year 1552, and educated at Oxford, where he took his degree of D.D. He died in 1590, and was buried at Rhiwabon, of which he was vicar. In 1584 he published an English version of “Caradog’s Chronicle of Wales,” with annotations, and some other works.
Edward Richard, an eminent Welsh critic, and an elegant pastoral poet, who was a native of Ystrad Meirig, in Cardiganshire. He was the master of a grammar school in his native village, from about the year 1735 to the time of his death, on the 4th March, 1777.
William Richards, L.L.D., was born in the year 1749, in the parish of Penrhydd, in the vicinity of Haverfordwest, county of Pembroke, South Wales. Though the Bible was the favourite theme of his studies, his reading was not confined to it, he made himself acquainted with the best authors in the English language; was well versed in civil and ecclesiastical history, and deemed an admirable critic in the Cambro-British tongue. Having determined to devote himself to the ministry of the gospel, he placed himself in the Baptist Academy at Bristol in the year 1773, where he continued two years. On leaving the academy at Bristol, Mr. Richards accepted an invitation to Pershore, in Worcestershire, where he became assistant to Dr. John Ash, pastor of the Baptist church of that place. In 1776 he accepted an invitation from the Baptist church at Lynn, in Norfolk, to become their pastor, and arrived there on the 1st of July. When Mr. Richards had been some years at Lynn, he received an invitation to settle at Norwich, but that he declined. After having passed forty-two years among his people at Lynn, he died on the 13th of September, 1818, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. His greatest effort as an author, was the “History of Lynn,” in two large octavo volumes, embellished with engravings.