Dictionary of Welsh Biography

WILLIAMS, JOHN (Ioan Mai; 1823 - 1887), poet him a friend of men of the calibre of Joseph Loth of the University of Rennes, and E. B. Cowell of Cambridge. He is reputed to have given the latter considerable help with his translations into English of the poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym. Ioan Mai wrote many poems in the free metres, some of them for competition at various eisteddfodau, but although his unfinished essay on 'The characteristics of Welsh
WILLIAMS, JOHN JOHN (1884 - 1950), school-teacher, education administrator, producer and drama adjudicator Wales and England. On the recommendation of Sir Wynn Wheldon he was interviewed for the post of first regional director for Wales of the B.B.C., but it was Sir Rhys Hopkin Morris who was appointed. He married, 3 July 1937, Elsie May Evans of Llanystumdwy, an English teacher at St. Helens school at the time. There were no children. He died 26 December 1950 at 17 Ashburton Avenue, Claughton, Birkenhead
WILLIAMS, Sir JOHN KYFFIN (1918 - 2006), painter and author gallery. Although his mother would allow no Welsh to be spoken in the home, his parents were both fluent Welsh speakers, and Kyffin himself spoke a good deal of Welsh, being able to recite passages of poetry by Dafydd ap Gwilym, and he used to write to his close friends in Welsh. When Kyffin declared in the 1980s 'I paint in Welsh', this meant that he had overcome his mother's taboo. When signing books
WILLIAMS, MORRIS (Nicander; 1809 - 1874), cleric and man of letters Born at Caernarvon, 20 August 1809, son of William Morris and Sarah his wife (she was a sister of Peter Jones (Pedr Fardd), and had been maidservant to Dewi Wyn - her husband had been a servant to Robert ap Gwilym Ddu. When he was a child, his parents moved to Coed Cae Bach, Llangybi, Caernarfonshire. He had some schooling at Llanystumdwy and was apprenticed to a carpenter; he began to write
WILLIAMS, NATHANIEL (1742 - 1826), Baptist (Particular, afterwards General) minister, theological controversialist, hymn-writer, and amateur doctor attributed to Peter Williams himself (which is most unlikely), to William Williams of Cardigan and William Richards of Lynn, and to Nathaniel Williams, and J. J. Evans (Morgan J. Rhys, 148-50) gives strong reasons for supposing that the last-named is the most likely. In 1796, Nathaniel Williams published, from the Trevecka press, Pharmacopoeia, or Medical Admonitions in English and Welsh … The Second Part
WILLIAMS, PETER (Pedr Hir; 1847 - 1922), Baptist minister, author, and eisteddfodwr kind of college education, was, in 1881, invited to become minister to the Baptists of Abergele, where he met Emrys ap Iwan; in 1886 he moved south to Shiloh, Tredegar; in 1897 he became minister of Balliol Road church, Bootle, Lancashire, and there he remained until his death on 24 March, 1922. In person he was immensely tall, broad in proportion, a fine handsome presence; as a preacher he developed
WILLIAMS, PHILIP (d. 1717), genealogist his son LLEWELYN WILLIAMS (who was buried 20 November 1740). For the titles of some of the poems (including one by ' Richard Edwards y prydydd o Wynedd') see volume one of N.L.W. Schedule of Penrice and Margam Muniments, 1942. For further details of the family see D. Rhys Phillips, Hist. of the Vale of Neath, 1925; see also G. J. Williams, Traddodiad Llenyddol Morgannwg, 224.
WILLIAMS, Sir RHYS - see RHYS-WILLIAMS, Sir RHYS
WILLIAMS, ROBERT (Robert ap Gwilym Ddu; 1766 - 1850), poet Aber-erch churchyard, near Pwllheli. As a craftsman in the classical forms of poetry, Robert ap Gwilym Ddu carried on the tradition of the finest poets of the old dispensation, and some of his englynion are pure gems. He learned much from Goronwy Owen, but he was also indebted to the traditions of his own neighbourhood. In his hymns he united the conciseness of the classical form with the lyrical
WILLIAMS, ROGER (1667 - 1730), Independent minister He was a member of the Cefnarthen church, Carmarthenshire and was probably educated at Rhys Prydderch of Ystradwallter's academy. He was ordained minister of the churches of Cefnarthen and Cwm-y-glo, Merthyr Tydfil, in 1698. He was an Arminian and his tenets caused trouble between him and the Calvinistic element in the churches. After his time, the churches were, in fact, rent asunder (see Davies
WILLIAMS, STEPHEN JOSEPH (1896 - 1992), Welsh scholar Stephen J. Williams was born in Blaen-y-gors, a small-holding between Ystradgylais and Creunant at the head of the Swansea valley, 11 February 1896, the eighth of the nine children of Rhys and Ann Williams (née Gibbs). The father came from a family of farmers in Llanddeusant, Carmarthenshire, the mother from Alltwen, Swansea Valley. When he was a year old his family moved to Ystradgynlais where
WILLIAMS, THOMAS (Gwilym Morgannwg; 1778 - 1835), poet a youth. When he was about 27 years of age he went to London where, however, he only stayed some six months. On his return he was employed by Rhys, son of Hywel Rhys, and it may be inferred that it was the teaching which he was given by, his master which enabled him to write, in co-operation with John Jenkins (1779 - 1853) of Hengoed, the first version of Y Parthsyllydd, 1815-6. Ioan Emlyn in his

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