OWEN
,
HUGH
(
1575?
-
1642
) of
Gwenynog
,
translator
;
b.
about 1575
, son of
Owen ap Hugh ap Richard
, the owner of the small estate of
Gwenynog
, in the parish of
Llanfflewyn
,
Anglesey
. It is not certain that he ever went to a university, but he is said to have been learned not only in law but in more than one foreign language, ‘
the which he was not taught by any Teacher save himself, and that in his own study in his own home
.’ In the course of the
first quarter of the 17th cent.
, he was for a time the
Bodeon
estate agent
, and
between 1614 and 1618
played a prominent part in the military affairs of the island
as
captain
of the
Talybolion commote train-band
. It was about this time that he decided to turn to the
Church of Rome
, and about
1622
that he left his home and family and went to
London
where he became
secretary
to
lord Herbert
at
Worcester House
. In
1627
, when
Herbert
succeeded to the
earldom of Worcester
, he accompanied his master to
Raglan castle
. He continued to serve the earl until the middle of
1640
when he appears to have resigned in order to live in the neighbourhood of
Tintern Abbey
. Here, in the parish of
Chapel Hill
, he d. some time
between March and July 1642
. As far as is known, he only returned once to
Anglesey
and that was about
mid-summer 1624
. He m.
Elizabeth
, daughter of
Thomas
Bulkeley
of
Groesfechan
, by whom he had two sons and seven daughters. He was the uncle of
William
Griffith
,
D.C.L.
,
chancellor
of
Bangor
and
S. Asaph
(q.v.)
and of
George
Griffith
,
bishop of S. Asaph
(q.v.)
. He is chiefly remembered as the
author
of
Dilyniad Crist
, the first translation into
Welsh
of
Thomas
à Kempis
's
De Imitatione Christi
which was edited and published in
1684
by his son
Hugh
, the
Jesuit priest
, better known as
Father
John
Hughes
(
1615
-
1686
, q.v.)
. In his introduction to
Dilyniad Crist
Hughes
says that his father wrote ‘
a number of godly Dissertations, and when he was but 27 years of age translated into Welsh
Llyfr y Resolution
… and after that
Vincentius Lirinensis
, the which, perchance, may yet see the light of publication
.’
Bibliography:
-
J. H. Davies
in
The Transactions of the Honourable Society
of Cymmrodorion
,
1897-8
, 13-15;
-
W. Llewelyn Williams
, ibid.,
1901-2
, 136-44;
-
Y Cymmrodor
, xvi, 176-7;
-
Journal of the Welsh Bibliographical
Society
, I, ii, 59-62;
-
T. Llechid Jones
,
ibid., III, iv, 145-51; III, v, 204-19;
-
A. O. Evans
, ibid., IV, i, 15-6;
-
E. G. Jones
in
Transactions of the Anglesey Antiquarian
Society and Field Club
,
1938
, 42-9.
Author:
Emyr Gwynne Jones, M.A., (1911-72), Bangor
