MADDOCKS (née THOMAS), ANN (1704 - 1727), ' the Maid of Cefn Ydfa '.

Name: Ann Maddocks
Pseudonym: The Maid Of Cefn Ydfa
Date of birth: 1704
Date of death: 1727
Spouse: Anthony Maddocks
Parent: Catherine Thomas (née Price)
Parent: William Thomas
Gender: Female
Area of activity: Literature and Writing
Author: Robert Thomas Jenkins

Born in 1704 (christened 8 May), daughter of William Thomas of Cefn Ydfa, Llangynwyd, Glamorganshire, and his wife Catherine Price of Tyn-ton, Llangeinor - sister of Rees Price, the father of the philosopher Richard Price; they were married 30 March 1703. William Thomas died in 1706 (buried 14 May). According to the story, he had placed his heiress, Ann, in the wardship of Anthony Maddocks, a lawyer of Cwmrisga, who compelled her to marry his own son Anthony; but William Thomas's will does not mention the wardship. Ann and Anthony junior did indeed marry, 4 May 1725, and their marriage-contract is extant. She died in 1727 (buried 6 June). With the above facts (correctly stated by T. C. Evans, in his Hist. of Llangynwyd) tradition has interwoven a romantic story, for which no evidence has been discovered; that the 'Maid' was in love with the poet ' Wil Hopcyn ' - that he composed the verses ' Watching the White Wheat ' to her - and that she died of a broken heart. This story has been fully discussed by G. J. Williams, in Y Llenor, 1927 and 1928; see also his Traddodiad Llenyddol Morgannwg, 251-9.

Author

Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

MADDOCKS (née THOMAS), ANN (1704 - 1727), ' the Maid of Cefn Ydfa '.

Author

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