ROBERTS
,
GRIFFITH
(
Gwrtheyrn
;
1846
-
1915
),
littérateur
;
b.
7 Oct. 1846
at
Hendrebach
,
Gwytherin, Denbs.
After very little schooling, he was apprenticed at 10 with a
weaver
at
Ysbyty Ifan
, and benefited greatly from the vigorous literary and musical life of
Pentrefoelas
in those days. He was afterwards for a while at
Llanrwst
, in the employ of
Gwilym Cowlyd
(q.v.)
, but returned to his
weaving
, living after his marriage (
1869
) in the house attached to
Cwmtirmynach Calvinistic Methodist chapel
, and afterwards at
Cefn-
ddwysarn
, and
working in the woollen-factories
at both places. But in
1877
he and his wife were appointed
master and mistress of the workhouse
at
Bala
; and he remained in that charge until about two years before his death on
20 Jan. 1915
. He was a man of many gifts; for one thing a fine
singer
and a
zealous fosterer of music
in the places in which he lived. In poetry, he was well disciplined in the strict metres, and although his own volume of verse,
Caneuon Gwrtheyrn
,
1873
, does not rank very high, his work as an
instructor of poets
was of great importance in the life of his region — for instance,
Dewi Havhesp
(q.v.)
owed much to his criticism. His articles in the
Liverpool
Brython
, on the old
cywydd
poets, and the manuscripts of his which are now in the
National Library
, show his
great interest in the older literature
. In a totally different field, he published in
1897
Pum Plwy Penllyn
, a most useful history of
Poor Law administration
in
Penllyn
from
1720 till 1897
.
Bibliography:
-
Y Brython
(Liverpool),
4 Feb. 1915
;
-
Y Seren
(Bala)
6 and 13 Feb. 1915
;
- information from the family;
- personal acquaintance.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
