A Biographical Sketch of some of the Most Eminent Individuals Part 4

_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 princ.i.p.al 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 pa.s.sed 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 ma.n.u.scripts; 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, Ess.e.x, 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, p.r.o.nounced 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 pa.s.sed 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 s.p.a.ce 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 doc.u.ments of the Cymry to the close of the thirteenth century. This splendid memorial of patriotism and industry is ent.i.tled 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'

Encyclopaedia, Warrington's History of Wales, h.o.a.re's History of Wiltshire, Britton's Beauties of England and Wales, Campbell's Books on Wales, Gunn's Tracts, Meyrick's Cardiganshire, c.o.x'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 Persh.o.r.e, in Worcestershire, where he became a.s.sistant 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 pa.s.sed 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.

_Sir Richard Richards_, Lord Chief Baron, was born in the year 1752. In the whole circle of the profession, no man stood higher in private estimation, or public respect. As a lawyer and a judge, his decisions, particularly in exchequer cases, were sound, and evinced considerable acuteness. He long enjoyed the friendship and confidence of Lord Chancellor Eldon, for whom, on several occasions, he presided under special commissions as speaker of the House of Lords. He was appointed on the fourth of May, 1813, chief justice of Chester, one of the barons of the exchequer in 1814, and in April, 1817, on the death of Sir A.

Thomson, Lord Chief Baron, Sir R. Richards succeeded him in that high office. He died in London, on the 11th of November, 1823.

_Grufydd Roberts_, a learned grammarian, who was educated at the University of Sienna, in Italy, under the patronage of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. He printed his valuable "Welsh Grammar" at Milan, in the year 1567.

_Rev. Daniel Rowlands_, rector of Llangeitho, in Cardiganshire, was born in the year 1713. He was a very distinguished minister of the gospel, who, by the mighty power of his extraordinary eloquence, roused some of his countrymen from that lethargy into which the whole country had sunk as to religion. His preaching was so valued, and such the benefits derived from it, that many flocked to hear him from every part of the Princ.i.p.ality. He continued rising in the public esteem till his death, which happened on October 10, 1790. He was reputed among the Calvinistic Methodists; but he taught particular tenets, and was the founder of a distinct sect, now pretty numerous in Wales, and denominated Rowlandists after his name.

_David Samwell_, an elegant poet, who was a native of Nantglyn, in Denbighshire. He was surgeon to the ship Discovery, commanded by Captain Cook, and was an eye-witness of the death of that celebrated navigator, of which melancholy event he wrote a circ.u.mstantial account in the Biographia Britannica. He died in the autumn of the year 1799.

_Rhydderch Sion_, a poet and grammarian, who lived from about the year 1700 to 1750. The latter part of his life he pa.s.sed as a printer at Shrewsbury, where he published his "Welsh Grammar," and a small "Welsh Vocabulary."

_Trevredyn Sion_, an eminent divine among the Nonconformists, who flourished as a theological writer from about the year 1670 to 1720; and who published his opinions in a book, which is an elegant specimen of the Silurian dialect.

_Prys Thomas_, of Plas Iolyn, a distinguished poet who lived from about the year 1560 to 1610. He was a gentleman of an ancient family and large property in Denbighshire; who, being of a wild and roving disposition, fitted out a privateer in which he went to try his fortune against the Spaniards. It appears also from one of his poems that he was an officer in the land service, and was at Tilbury when Queen Elizabeth reviewed the array then a.s.sembled there.

_Davydd Edward o Vargam_, an eminent poet of Glamorgan, who was admitted a graduate of the Gorfedd for that province in the year 1620, presided there in 1660, and died in 1690. Many of his productions are preserved, but his most important work is the "Augmentation of the Collection of the Bardic Mysteries," formed by Llywelyn o Llangewydd.

_Alderman Waithman_ was, indeed, "the architect of his own fortune." He was born near Wrexham, North Wales, in 1764, of parents of virtuous character, but in humble life. His father died soon afterwards; and his mother re-marrying, Waithman, when an infant, was adopted by an uncle, a respectable linendraper, in Bath, and sent to the school of one Moore, an ingenious man, the economy of whose plan of education led all his pupils to acquire the habit of public and extemporaneous speaking. Mr. Waithman was afterwards taken into the business of his uncle; on whose death, about 1788, he obtained a situation at Reading, whence he proceeded to London, and lived with a respectable linendraper until he became of age.

He then married, and opened a shop at the south end of Fleet Market, nearly on the precise site of the monument there erected to his memory.

His activity and success next enabled him to remove to more extensive premises, at the corner of Bridge-street and Fleet-street, where he always honoured the high character of a London citizen and tradesman. He retired from his business about twelve years since. He appears to have commenced his political career about the year 1794; when, at a Common Hall, he submitted a series of resolutions upon the war with France, and enforcing the necessity of a reform in parliament; which resolutions were triumphantly carried, and laid the foundation of his popularity. He was next elected into the Common Council, where the speeches, resolutions, pet.i.tions and addresses, which he moved and carried, would fill a considerable volume. His friends, and his own well-directed ambition, next prompted him to seek to represent the city of London in parliament; but his efforts were unsuccessful, till, at the general election of 1818, he was returned by a great majority, having polled 4,603 votes. He next became alderman of his ward, Farringdon Without, the most considerable in the city. At the general election, in 1820, he lost his seat by 140 votes. In the same year he served as Sheriff of London and Middles.e.x, with activity and intelligence; as he filled the office of Lord Mayor in 182324. At the elections of 1826, 1830, 1831, and 1833 he was again returned for the City. He died in February, 1833, and was buried in St.

Bride's church, Fleet street. A glance at these few data of the Alderman's useful life will bear out the proposition that he was "the architect of his own fortune." He owed nothing to court, or even City patronage; but, even amidst the turmoil of a political life, he acc.u.mulated a respectable fortune; for, it should be remembered that he became an active politician forty years since, or within ten years after he had established himself in business. He was a man of unflinching integrity and untiring industry-qualities which make their possessor rich indeed. As an orator, he was characterized rather by fluency than finery of language: he preferred common to fine sense, and his experience in matters of the great stage of the world was very considerable.

_Edward Williams_, master of Rotherham Academy, was born November the 14th, 1750, at Glancllwyd near Denbigh. The rudiments of his education he received at various schools in the neighbourhood, but having at the age of twenty, decided on entering the Christian ministry, he was placed under private tuition. If a few years time he was sent to prosecute his studies at the Dissenting Academy of Abergavenny. His first settlement in the ministry was at Ross, in Herefordshire, where he was ordained in 1776. A few years after this, Mr. Williams was requested to direct the concerns of the seminary at Abergavenny, but as he declined that proposal, the academy was removed from Abergavenny to Oswestry, where Mr.

Williams now commenced the delivery of a course of college lectures, which he continued for about ten years, when he transferred the academy to other hands, and removed to Birmingham in 1792. After spending three years at the latter place, he received an invitation to superintend the concerns of the Independent Academy at Rotherham, in Yorkshire, to which station he removed in 1795, and that station he continued to occupy to the period of his death, March 9, 1813. A diploma from Edinburgh const.i.tuting him Doctor of Divinity, was received in 1792. Among the numerous productions of his pen are a reply to Mr. Abraham Booth on the "Baptismal Controversy," two volumes, duodecimo, an "Abridgement of Dr.

Owen's Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews," four volumes, octavo, an "Essay on the Equity of Divine Government, and the Sovereignty of the Divine Grace."

_Peter Williams_, A.M., an eminent divine among the Calvinists in Wales, who died August 4th, 1796, in his seventy-seventh year. He published a large quarto Welsh Bible in 1770, with copious notes, which has gone through two subsequent editions. He also printed a small edition with notes, also a Concordance, and several religious tracts.

_Rev. William Williams_, an eminent preacher among the Methodists, and who was a poet of considerable genius. He published a great many tracts, and Welsh hymns for the use of his society; the princ.i.p.al of which is a work called "Golwg ar Deyrnas Crist," published in 1761. He died about the year 1776.

_Rev. Morris Williams_, a celebrated Welsh antiquary, was born on the 2nd of March, 1685, in the parish of Cellan, Cardiganshire, and was the son of the Rev. Samuel Williams, vicar of Llandifriog. The elementary part of his cla.s.sical education he received at the Caermarthen Grammar-school, whence he removed to Oxford, and matriculated at University College, May 31, 1705. Here he took his first degree in arts in 1708; he was afterwards incorporated in the same degree at Cambridge, and proceeded master of arts in that University in 1718. He was ordained deacon by Dr.

Fromnel, Bishop of Norwich, a priest by Dr. Ottley, Bishop of St.

David's. Dr. Ottley presented him to the living of Llanwenog, in the above county, in 1715; and in 1717 he was inducted to the vicarage of Devynock, in Brecknockshire, where, in 1718 he married Margaret Davies, of that parish. In 1724 he exchanged this living for the rectory of Chetton Trinity, and the vicarage of St. Mary's, Bridgewater, Somersetshire. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1732.

His chief reputation as a Welsh scholar and antiquary rests on the valuable a.s.sistance he gave Dr. Wotton in preparing for publication his edition of the Laws of Hywel Dda, the glossary to which, a very able and learned performance, was princ.i.p.ally compiled by Mr. Williams. His other works comprise various theological treatises, now little known. He also drew up a ma.n.u.script catalogue of books in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and a ma.n.u.script life of himself, deposited in that library. His books and ma.n.u.scripts he bequeathed to Lord Macclesfield.

_Cynwal Williams_, an eminent poet of Penmacno, Caernarvonshire, who lived from about the year 1560 to 1600. The most interesting part of his works is his poetical controversy with Edmund Prys, the archdeacon of Meirionethshire; a contest that was carried on with so much feeling as ultimately to cause Cynwal Williams to fall a martyr to the poignancy of one of the replications of his antagonist.

_William Wyn_, A.M., an eminent poet and divine, of the family of Rhaged, in Meirionethshire, who lived from about the year 1740 to 1760, in which last year he died. He was the rector of Llangyhaval and Manavon, in Denbighshire. Some beautiful compositions by him are printed in Dewisol Ganiadau.

THE END.