JONES
,
JOHN (EMLYN)
(
Ioan Emlyn
;
1818
-
1873
),
Baptist minister, poet, and man of letters
;
b. at
Newcastle Emlyn
. He was apprenticed to a
watchmaker
at
Crickhowell
(a town of which he sketched the history in
Golud yr Oes
,
1863
), and while there was one of the ‘
Cymreigyddion
’ of
Abergavenny
(
1838
) and of
Llangynidr
. From
Crickhowell
he moved to
Cardiff
, to the staff of
The Principality
— there he translated parts of
Gill
's Biblical commentaries. It is not known when he began
preaching
— indeed, precise dates of his career are in general hard to come by; but he ministered successively at
Pontypridd
,
Ebbw Vale
,
Cardiff
,
Merthyr Tydfil
, and
Llandudno
, returning finally to
Ebbw Vale
, where he d. in
Jan. 1873
, aged 55. His literary activity was considerable: he was
editor
of
Y Bedyddiwr
and of
Seren Cymru
at different times, brought out an enlarged edition of
Hanes Prydain Fawr
(by
Titus
Lewis
, q.v.
), published
Tiriad y Ffrancodym Mhencaer
in
1856
and
Gramadeg Cerddorol
in
1860
, not to speak of other books. He undertook the resumption of
Y Parthsyllydd
, a large-scale treatise on geography which had been begun by
John
Jenkins
of
Hengoed
and
Thomas
Williams
(
Gwilym Morgannwg
) (qq.v.)
, but failed to complete it (it was completed in
1875
by
J.
Spinther James
, q.v.
). Two
bardic chairs
fell to him — at
Denbigh National Eisteddfod
(
1860
) and at a regional eisteddfod in
Anglesey
(
1871
) — and he published in
1871
a collection of
awdlau
submitted unsuccessfully at other eisteddfodau. But his name lives today solely on account of his poem ‘
Bedd y Dyn Tylawd
’ (‘the Poor Man's Grave’). He was given the honorary degree of
LL.D.
by
Glasgow University
in
1863
.
Bibliography:
-
Y Gwyddoniadur Cymreig
, 1889-96
, 2nd ed., x, 652-3;
-
Y Traethodydd
,
1903
, 434;
-
A roll of the graduates of the University of
Glasgow from 3lst December, 1727 to 3lst December, l897
With short biographical notes
, Glasgow, 1898
, 300;
-
Y Geninen
,
March 1893
.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
