WILLIAMS, WILLIAM (Carw Coch; 1808 - 1872), eisteddfodwr and man of letters

Born 6 March 1808 near Aberpergwm in the Vale of Neath, the son of Noah and Joan Williams, who were members of the Unitarian congregation of Blaen Gwrach. At an early age he went to Tredegar, and thence to Llwydcoed, Aberdare, where, in 1832, he married a girl whose family had been settled in that neighbourhood for a long time. In 1837, he built the Stag Inn - hence his pseudonym - at Trecynon, where he spent the rest of his life. He was an ardent politician, a member of the society of 'Free Enquirers' at Aberdare, and a supporter of the Chartists, to whose Welsh journal, Udgorn Cymru, he was a contributor. He also sent articles to Yr Ymofynydd (he was a leading member of the Unitarian meeting-house at Trecynon), and was one of the founders of the newspaper Y Gwladgarwr (1857-83). In 1841 an eisteddfod was held at the Stag, and from that time on the 'Free Enquirers' became the 'Cymreigyddion of the Carw Coch' (Red Stag). People like Alaw Goch, Dr. Thomas Price, and, indeed, all the local poets and writers took part in the Carw Coch eisteddfod, which continued as an institution for many years. The fruit of one of the series (1853) was the volume Gardd Aberdâr, 1854, which contains, among other things, one of Carw Coch's essays. He died 26 September 1872, and was buried in S. Fagan's churchyard, Aberdare. Some of his works, prose and verse, were collected in a volume, Carw Coch, 1908.

Author

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

Sources

• Carw Coch, Gweddillion llenyddol y diweddar William Williams (Carw Coch) mewn rhyddiaeth a barddoniaeth
• D. M. Richards, Rhestr Eisteddfodau hyd y flwyddyn 1901 (1914)
• Cymru (O.M.E.), xl, 58-60, lvi, 41-4, 82-3

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: William Williams

Additional Links

• VIAF: 51497187
• Wikidata: Q16065570

Published date: 1959

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