PUGH, JOHN (Ieuan Awst; 1783 - 1839), lawyer and poet

Born August 1783 in Melinfraenen, Llangelynnin, Meironnydd, the fifth child of David and Catherine Pugh. He only received nine months' schooling, but, despite this lack of education, he gained a local reputation for scholarship in his later years. He moved to Dolgelley when he was 13 years old and became a clerk in a solicitor's office. He was later apprenticed to Thomas Williams, a printer at Dolgelley, but gave the trade up and became articled to a local solicitor; and on completing his articles he practised as a solicitor in Dolgelley. Although a solicitor he still retained his interest in printing and in 1815 he became a master printer and his name (John Pugh, Heol Finsbury) appeared in the imprint of the Dysgedydd from 1833 to 1840. He wrote a great deal of Welsh poetry and prose which was published in the Dysgedydd, Seren Gomer, and similar periodicals, under the pseudonym Ieuan Awst. On 11 January 1815 he married Jane Oliver, daughter of Robert Oliver, Dolgelley, by whom he had eight children. He died 16 February 1839.

Author

• Thomas Isfryn Jones

Sources

• Edward Davies, Traethawd ar Enwogion Swydd Feirion, hen a diweddar, yn gelfyddydwyr, beirdd, gwyddonwyr, pregethwyr
• Ifano Jones, A history of printing and printers in Wales to 1810, and of successive and related printers to 1923 (Cardiff 1925)
• R. Prys Morris, Cantref Meirionydd ei chwedlau, ei hynafiaethau, a'i hanes (1890)
• Y Dysgedydd, 1839 and 1840
• Seren Gomer, 1823, 1824

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q27971230

Published date: 1959

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