ROWLANDS, DAVID (Dewi Môn; 1836 - 1907), Congregational minister and college principal

Born 4 March 1836 at Gwenfron, Rhos-y-bol, near Amlwch, Anglesey, a member of a family that was prominent in Calvinistic Methodist circles. He was educated locally and then apprenticed in a shop in Holyhead. When he was 16 years old he began to preach at the Tabernacle Congregational chapel, Holyhead. He was a student at Bala Independent College, 1853-6, and at New College, London, 1856-7; he was an assistant tutor at Bala Independent College, 1857-8, and then a student at Brecon College, 1858-61, graduating in the University of London at the end of his course at Brecon. He was minister of Yr Hen Gapel, Llanbrynmair, 1861-6, of the English Congregational church, Welshpool, 1866-70, and of the English Congregational church, Carmarthen, 1870-2. In 1872 he became tutor at the Brecon College and, in 1897, principal, a post which he held until his death on 7 January 1907.

Dewi Môn was a zealous supporter of educational, social, national, and religious movements and institutions. During the time when he was an assistant tutor at Bala he lectured and wrote much on behalf of the project to found a Welsh colony in Patagonia in the Argentine. He often adjudicated at national eisteddfodau. He was a member of the Brecknock Education Committee for many years and was a strong supporter of the University of Wales. He was chairman of the Union of Welsh Independents in 1902. His literary work was varied. He was joint-editor of Y Dysgedydd for a period, collaborated with D. E. Jenkins, Liverpool, to edit a volume of sermons [wrote the English words for 'Blodwen,' an opera by Dr. Joseph Parry ], translated the 'Alcestis' of Euripides into Welsh, edited Telyn Tudno, 1897, published a selection of Welsh prose, and wrote a Welsh grammar, 1897. Some hymns by him are published in Y Caniedydd Cynulleidfaol.

Author

• Reverend John Dyfnallt Owen, (1873 - 1956)

Sources

• Dyddiadur yr Annibynwyr, 1908
• The Congregational Year Book, 1908
• Who's who?, 1903
• Album Aberhonddu … o'r flwyddyn 1755 hyd 1880 (1898)
• Y Tyst, January 1907
• T. R. Roberts, Eminent Welshmen: a short biographical dictionary of Welshmen... from the earliest times to the present (1908)
• Catalogue of Printed Literature in the Welsh Department, Cardiff Free Libraries (1898)

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: David Rowlands

Works

• David Rowlands, Grammadeg Cymraeg (Wrexham 1877)

Additional Links

• VIAF: 92831350
• Wikidata: Q13127816

Published date: 1959

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