THOMAS, SIENCYN or JENKIN (1690 - 1762), boot-maker, Dissenting preacher, and poet

The son of Thomas Morgan, miller, of Tre Wen, Brongwyn, Cardiganshire. He lived at Cwm Du. According to the evidence of the elegy written upon him by his son, John Jenkin, he was born in 1690. He began his career as a Dissenting preacher in 1716 and attended to the spiritual needs of the congregations at Tre-wen and Llechryd. His englynion ' In Laudem Authoris ' in Drych y Prif Oesoedd, 1716, and his cywydd printed in Meddylieu Neillduol ar Grefydd, 1717, show that, in spite of the fact that he was still comparatively young, he was far in advance of his literary friends in the south of Cardigan in his mastery of prosody and in his knowledge of the traditional forms of the cywydd. He is at his best in his elegy upon Ifan Gruffydd of Tŵr Gwyn, 1753. His 'free' poems are highly religious and moral; both the cynghanedd and the internal rhyme figure prominently in them. He was the first Cardiganshire poet to use the 'three-beat' metre.

Author

• Dr Geraint Bowen

Sources

• Yr Adolygydd, iii, 55
• Y Geninen, x, 78
• Cymru (O.M.E.), vii, 173
• Benjamin Williams (Gwynionydd), Enwogion Ceredigion (1869), 227
• Blodau Dyfed (1824), 1824
• Diliau'r Awen, sef, Crynodeb o Waith Awenyddol … Evan Thomas Rhys … ac eraill (1842), 1842
• Ceinion Alun (Rhuthyn 1851), 72
• Almanac Siôn Rhydderch (1733), 1733
• N.L.W. Llanofer Manuscript at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth 59, 266
• NLW Archives: NLW MS 19B
• Cardiff Manuscript 56

Additional Links

• NLW Archives: NLW ex 1836: Beirdd Cwm-du
• RCAHMW: Historic Place Names: Allt Cwm du
• Wikidata: Q20734396

Published date: 1959

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