ROBERTS
,
JOHN
(
Alaw Elwy
, also called ‘
Telynor Cymru
’;
1816
-
1894
),
harpist
;
b. at
Rhiwlas Isaf
,
Llanrhaeadr
, near
Denbigh
, the son of
John
Roberts
,
Pentrefoelas
, [a
ballad-singer
who had been at the
battle of Waterloo
, and is said to have been a cousin of the
almanack-maker
John
Roberts
(
1731
-
1806
), (q.v.)
. His mother,
Sarah
, was the daughter of
William
Wood
, and the sister of
Archelaus
Wood
— see
Wood
family
.] He started his career in the
23rd Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers
where he stayed nine and a half years. He then settled at
Newtown, Mont.
, and remained there for the rest of his life. In
1836
he m.
Eleanor Wood
Jones
, daughter of
Jeremiah Wood
Jones
(see under
Wood
),
harpist
at
Gogerddan
for half a century. A pupil of
Richard
Roberts
(
1796
-
1855
) (q.v.)
, a
Caernarvon
harpist
, he became a noted
harpist
and a
skilled singer of penillion to the accompaniment of the harp
. He won the
triple harp
offered at the
Abergavenny eisteddfod
,
1842
, taking the chief prize in
1848
also. He also won the harp at the
Cardiff eisteddfod
of
1850
. He played before the
queen
at
Portsmouth
in
1834
and at
Winchester
(twice) in
1835
; he also played before
grand duke
Constantine
of
Russia
at
Aberystwyth
(
1847
), and the
king of Belgium
at
Swansea
in
1848
. He taught nine of his children to
play the harp, the violin, and the flute
, and they gave a concert before
queen
Victoria
at
Pale, Mer.
, when
she visited that house in
1889
. Four years previously (
1885
) he had given up calling himself
Alaw Elwy
on being invested by
Gwilym Cowlyd
(q.v.)
as ‘
Telynor Cymru
’ in a bardic ‘gorsedd’ held on the shores of
Llyn Geirionydd
(
1886
). He d.
11 May 1894
. He was a fluent
Romany
-speaker.
Bibliography:
-
M. O. Jones
,
Bywgraffiaeth Cerddorion Cymreig
,
National Eisteddfod Association publication, 1890
;
-
Nicholas Bennett
,
Alawon fy Ngwlad
, and
, 1896
;
-
R. Griffith
,
Llyfr Cerdd Dannau
. [1913.]
;
-
R. Williams
,
Montgomeryshire Worthies
, second ed.,
1894
.
Author:
Robert David Griffith, M.A., (1877-1958), Old Colwyn
