JONES, DAVID WATKIN (Dafydd Morganwg, 1832 - 1905), poet, historian, and geologist

Name: David Watkin Jones
Pseudonym: Dafydd Morganwg
Date of birth: 1832
Date of death: 1905
Parent: John Jones
Gender: Male
Occupation: poet, historian, and geologist
Area of activity: Eisteddfod; History and Culture; Nature and Agriculture; Poetry; Science and Mathematics
Author: Moelwyn Idwal Williams

Born at Merthyr Tydfil, 14 February 1832, he was the son of John Jones, a Cardiganshire man and cousin of Daniel Evans (Daniel Ddu o Geredigion, 1792 - 1846). He was at work underground before he was 10, and after declining an offer to be educated for orders in the Church of England, he became, through his own perseverance, an underground fireman by 1859, and in the same year achieved his first eisteddfodic success. For thirty years he served the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique as coal inspector.

He was a successful eisteddfodic competitor, his chief successes being at Machynlleth, 1870, Llanberis, 1878, and Cardiff, 1883. He contributed numerous articles to the Geninen and other magazines, and wrote a large number of the articles in Cymru (O.J.). In 1874 he published Hanes Morganwg, a history of Glamorgan. His best known work is Yr Ysgol Farddol, a textbook of Welsh prosody, first published in 1869. He also published a very useful Welsh grammar entitled Yr Ysgol Gymreig. He was the editor of the Welsh poetry column of the Cardiff Times for several years. In 1888 he became the first president of the Cardiff Cymmrodorion Society. He died 25 April 1905 at Cardiff.

Author

Dr Moelwyn Idwal Williams

Sources

The Cardiff Times, 29 April 1905
Manchester Guardian, 26 April 1905
Y Geninen, 1905, 198-201
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 56, xcv

Images

David Phillips, David Watkin Jones, 'Dafydd Morganwg'
Lee & Co, David W. Jones, 'Dafydd Morganwg'

Works

Dafydd Morganwg, 'Arwrgerdd Syr Nicholas Kemeys, gorchfygwr ac amddiffynwr Casgwent,' in John Rowland, Sir Nicholas Kemeys, Bart., Cefn Mably, the captor and defender of Chepstow Castle, with the family history and pedigree, deduced from pedigrees and MSS. (Cardiff 1881)
Thomas Evans, Dafydd Morganwg (ed.), Barddoniaeth Telynog, yn cynnwys pryddestau, caniadau, cywyddau ac englynion (Merthyr Tydfil 1866)
Ezekiel Davies, Dafydd Morganwg (ed.), Ceinion Gwent: sef detholion o gyfansoddiadau barddonol y diweddar Mr Ezekiel Davies,(Gwentwyson) (Ystalyfera 1894)

Additional Links

VIAF: 29302571
Wikidata: Q18535730

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/