EDWARDS
,
EDWARD
(
1726?
-
1783?
),
cleric and scholar
;
b. at
Talgarth
,
Towyn, Mer.
, son of
Lewis
Edwards
, ‘
esq.
’
; matriculated at
Jesus
(
Oxford
) in
May 1743
, ‘aged 17’; and graduated in
Jan. 1746/7
(
B.D.
1756
,
D.D.
1760
). Elected
Fellow
in
1747
, he retained his
Fellowship
till
1783
, and was also (from
1770
at latest)
rector
of
Bessels-leigh
near
Oxford
; from
1762 till 1783
he was
vice-principal
of
Jesus
. He resigned in
1783
to become
rector
of
Aston Clinton, Bucks.
, and according to a letter of
Samuel
Johnson
's he was dead by
1784
.
Johnson
and he were friends and correspondents, and
Johnson
stayed with him at
Jesus
in
1782
. ‘My convivial friend’ is
Johnson
's description of
Edwards
— and the hint is amplified in
Richard
Morris
's account of
Edwards
's reception into the
Cymmrodorion Society
in
1763
. He was not without knowledge of things
Welsh
, but was primarily a
Grecian
. He projected an edition of
Xenophon
's
Memorabilia
, published,
1773
, an
essay on Socratic ethics
as mirrored in that book, and by the time of his death had printed the
Greek
text with a
Latin
version; his work was seen through the press in
1785
by his friend and fellow-Cymmrodor
Henry
Owen
(
1716
-
1795
) (q.v.)
. [
Enw. C.
says he d.
2 Sept. 1783
, ‘in
Wales
.’]
Bibliography:
-
Foster
,
Alumni Oxonienses
;
-
Hardy
,
Jesus College
, 1899
, 177-8;
-
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D
comprehending an account of his studies and numerous works,
in chronological order, a series of his epistolary
correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons,
and various original pieces of his composition, never
before published the whole exhibiting a view of literature
and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century,
during which he flourished in three volumes
, Dublin,
1792
, ed. Birbeck Hill, iii, 367, 529;
-
The Letters of Lewis, Richard, William, and
John Morris, of Anglesey, (Morrisiaid Môn) 1728-1765Add. Morris Letters
,
1907–9. See also
, ii, 531, 565 (or
Y Cymmrodor
,
1951
, 77).
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
