OWEN, EDWARD (1729?-1807), cleric and schoolmaster;
son of David Owen, of Llangurig, Mont. (see under Owen family of Cefn-hafodau). He matriculated from Jesus College, Oxford, 22 March 1745/6, at the age of 17. He graduated B.A. 1749, and M.A. 1752. In 1752 he was appointed master of the free grammar school, Warrington. In 1763 he became incumbent of Sankey Chapel, Warrington, and, in 1767, rector of Warrington. He was a very good scholar, and obtained a good name for himself both as clergyman and schoolmaster. Many of his pupils subsequently became prominent men. He was of a particularly benevolent disposition and befriended Goronwy Owen (q.v.) when the latter was curate at Walton. He took prominent part in the social and literary life of Warrington, and was president of the Warrington library. His chief published work is his Satires of Juvenal and Persius, translated into English Verse (two vols., 1785; later editions, 1786 and 1810). He also published school Latin grammars. Gilbert Wakefield speaks of Owen as ‘a man of most elegant learning, unimpeachable veracity and peculiar benevolence of heart.’ But Thomas Seddons lampooned him in Characteristic Strictures, 1779. His portrait is preserved in Warrington Museum. He d. 5 April 1807.
Bibliography:
- Asaph (Em. W.) and D.N.B., and authorities therein cited;
- N.L.W. MS. 9268;
- B.M. Cat. P.B.;
- J. H. Davies in Trans. Cymm., 1922-3 (appendix, with portrait);
- Letters of Goronwy Owen (ed. J. H. Davies), 67, 142-3.
Author:
John James Jones, M.A., (1892-1957), Aberystwyth
