EDWARDS
,
JOHN
(‘
Siôn y Potiau
’;
1699?
-
1776
);
translator and poet
;
b. at
Glyn Ceiriog, Denbs.
— perhaps he is the
John
, son of
Edward
Jones
, who was chr. there
27 Dec. 1699
. The burial of
‘John Edwards the Welsh Poet’
at
Llansantffraid Glyn Ceiriog
,
28 Dec. 1776
, is registered, and it is said that for a time his home was near the churchyard. He is stated to have given up his craft as a
weaver
shortly after his marriage and to have spent seven years in
London
as a
bookseller's assistant
— this is supported by the controversy between him and
Jonathan
Hughes
(q.v.)
.
Cain
Jones
, the
almanac-maker
(q.v.)
, was his son and, according to
Charles
Ashton
and others,
John
Edwards
too was an
almanac-maker
. He was one of the
poets
who took part in the eisteddfodau of the
18th cent.
—
Bala
1738
,
Glyn Ceiriog
1743
,
Selattyn
1748
, etc. — and many of his poems are characteristic of the work of the eisteddfod
poets, more particularly his best-known work, the twenty-four
englynion
to the belfry of
Llangollen
church,
1749
. He translated the second and ‘third’ parts of
The Pilgrim's Progress
. Judging by the
translator
's ‘Notice’ the second part was published (by
Stafford
Prys
, q.v.
) probably in
1761-2
and not in
1767
as
William
Rowlands
(
Gwilym Lleyn
)
asserts. The third part was published ‘for
Dafydd Llwyd
of
Bala
’ at
Chester
in
1768
— a
Robert
Llwyd
of
Bala
is mentioned in the second part as one of the
translator
's friends. This was the earliest translation of the ‘third’ part into
Welsh
.
Bibliography:
-
Y Tyst Apostolaidd
, v,
1850
, 136;
-
W. Rowlands
,
Cambrian Bibliography
, Llanidloes, 1869
, 503;
-
Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymreig, 1651–1850
.
[1893?]
, 338, etc.;
-
J. H. Davies
,
A Bibliography of Welsh Ballads printed in
the 18th century
, 1908-11
;
-
Almanac
, 1776, 1777, 1779, 1780
,
1776
,
1777
,
1779
,
1780
;
-
Almanac
, 1740, 1743, 1744
,
1740
,
1743
,
1744
.
Author:
Garfield Hopkin Hughes, M.A., (1912-69), Aberystwyth
