WILLIAMS
,
ROBERT
(
Trebor Mai
;
1830
-
1877
),
poet
;
b.
25 May 1830
at
Ty'n-yr-ardd
near
Llanrhychwyn
(Caerns.)
, the son of a
tailor
. He was educated at a local
Llanrhychwyn
school and for a period attended the free school at
Llanrwst
. When he was 13 his family moved to
Llanrwst
and he applied himself to his father's craft. After marriage on
13 Oct. 1854
he commenced business as a
tailor
on his own account in that town, and there spent the rest of his life. He had previously been instructed in the rudiments of poetic composition by
Caledfryn
(q.v.)
, who was at that time a
minister
at
Llanrwst
.
Trebor Mai
remained a life-long admirer of
Caledfryn
, and in
1863
refused to support the ‘
Protest
’ against the severity of the latter's eisteddfodic adjudications.
He published two volumes of verse,
Fy Noswyl
,
1861
, and
Y Geninen
,
1869
. He is celebrated as a
writer of
englynion
, of which his collected works published in
1883
contain over a thousand examples, in addition to fifty poems in the free metres, one
awdl
, and a number of pieces in the
cywydd
and
hir a thoddaid
metres. Among his literary associates were
Gwilym Cowlyd
,
Dewi Arfon
, and
Scorpion
(qq.v.). For a period he was a member of the
Independent
denomination but later joined the
Established Church
. He d.
5 Aug. 1877
, and was buried at
Llanrwst
.
Bibliography:
-
Gwaith Barddonol Trebor Mai, prif englyniwr
Cymru : yn cynwys ei englynion, caneuon, cywyddau,
etc.
, Liverpool, 1883
(Isaac Foulkes),
1883
.
Author:
Professor Alfred Owen Hughes Jarman, M.A., (1911-98), Cardiff
