JAMES, EDWARD (1569?-1610?), cleric and translator;
b. in Glamorgan. He matriculated at Oxford from S. Edmund Hall, 11 March 1585/6, at the age of 16; B.A. from Jesus College, 16 June 1589; M.A., 8 July 1592. He was appointed vicar of Caerleon, 2 Feb. 1595/6, rector of Shire-Newton, 8 Aug. 1597, rector of Llangattock-juxta-Usk, 15 April 1598, vicar of Llangattock-feibion-Afel, 12 July 1599, vicar of Llangattock-juxta-Neath, 23 July 1603, and chancellor of Llandaff in 1606. In 1606 he translated into Welsh Certain Sermons or Homilies, under the title Pregethau a osodwyd allan trwy awdurdod i'w darllein ymhob Eglwys blwyf a phob capel er adailadaeth i'r bobl annyscedig. Gwedi eu troi i'r iaith Gymeraeg drwy waith Edward James … 1606. A reprint of the Homiliau was published by John Roberts of Tremeirchion (1775-1829) (q.v.) in 1817 and another by Nicander (Morris Williams, q.v.) in 1847. As there are no extant Llandaff diocesan records of this period, the date of James's death is not known; J. C. Morrice gives it as 1610, but no successor was appointed until 1620 (D. R. Phillips, Hist. of the Vale of Neath, 76).
Bibliography:
- Alumni Oxon.;
- Clerical Institutions Wales ending 1840 (N.L.W. MS. 1626);
- G. J. Williams, Tradd. Llen. Morgannwg.
Author:
David Gwenallt Jones, M.A., (1899-1968), Aberystwyth
