REES
,
SARAH JANE
(
Cranogwen
;
1839
-
1916
),
schoolmistress, poet, editor, temperance advocate
,
was b.
9 Jan. 1839
at
Llangrannog, Cards.
, daughter of a
master mariner
. She received her education at first in the village school kept by one
Hugh
Davies
from whom she, later, learnt some
Latin
and astronomy. She also attended schools held at
Cardigan
,
New Quay
, and
Liverpool
. She
went to sea on her father's ship
and so made practical acquaintance with the subject of
navigation
, which she was afterwards to
teach
(in the school which she conducted herself, after a course of navigation in
London
, at
Llangrannog
) to sea-faring men and others. She became an
ardent supporter of the Tonic Sol-fa system of music notation
, becoming, in time, a local
examiner
for the
Tonic Sol-fa College
. She won her first notable success as a
poet
at the
Aberystwyth national eisteddfod
,
1865
, the subject of the winning poem being ‘
Y Fodrwy Briodasol
’; at this contest she beat
Islwyn
and
Ceiriog
(qq.v.). She also became a
public speaker
,
lecturer
, and
preacher
; in
1878
she began to
edit
Y Frythones
, a
Welsh
journal devoted to the interests of women which continued to appear until
1891
. In
1901
she founded the
Women's Temperance Movement
which is still known as ‘
Undeb Dirwestol Merched y De
.’ She d.
27 June 1916
. There is a ‘
Cranogwen Scholarship
’ tenable at the
University College of Wales
,
Aberystwyth
, in commemoration of her.
Bibliography:
-
Caniadau Cranogwen
, Dolgellau,
1870
… (Dolgellau,
1870
);
-
National Library of Wales Manuscript
2142;
-
D. G. Jones
,
Cofiant Cranogwen
, Caernarfon,
1932
(Caernarfon,
1932
)
Author:
Sir William Llewelyn Davies, M.A., LL.D., F.S.A. (1887-1952),
Aberystwyth
