ROBERTS, GRIFFITH (Gwrtheyrn; 1846 - 1915), littérateur

Born 7 October 1846 at Hendrebach, Gwytherin, Denbighshire. 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, 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 January 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 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.

Author

• Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Sources

• Y Brython (Liverpool), 4 February 1915
• Y Seren, 6 and 13 February 1915
• information from the family
• personal acquaintance

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q28361388

Published date: 1959

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