SION TUDUR
(d.
1602
),
poet
.
Siôn Tudur
d. on the
eve of Easter Sunday, 3 April 1602
, and was buried in
S. Asaph
church the following Monday,
5 April
. In view of the fact that, towards the end of his life, he claimed to be the oldest of all the bards, and that some time
before 1580
he had complained to
Rhys
Gruffudd
of
Penrhyn
that he was growing old, it is suggested that he was b.
before 1530
. His home was at
Wigfair
,
S. Asaph
, and he was a
landed proprietor
of the lineage of
Llywarch Howlbwrch
. He spent some time at the court in
London
where he was one of
queen
Elizabeth
's
bodyguard
. He addressed eulogies, elegies, and begging poems to over sixty
North Wales
families; among them are poems to four generations of the house of
Botryddan
, four of
Mostyn
, and three of
Lleweni
— nearly all relating to the period
after 1566
. He occasionally went out as a
strolling bard
, going as far as
Abergwili
, where he called on
bishop
Richard
Davies
(q.v.)
. He was given the rank of
apprentice chief bard
at the
Caerwys eisteddfod
,
1568
. There is a letter written in his own handwriting in the
Wigfair collection
in the
N.L.W.
(see
B.B.C.S.
, vii, 112-7). His wife was
Mallt
, daughter of
Pyrs
Gruffudd
of
Caerwys
,
serjeant-at-arms
to
Henry
VIII
. They had three children,
Thomas
,
Elizabeth
, and
Margaret
.
Bibliography:
-
Archaeologia Cambrensis
, 1846 ff. Some contributors have cited this by volume in the various series (Series
I, 1843-8; Series II, 1850-4; Series III, 1855-69; Series IV, 1870-83; Series V, 1884-1900; Series VI, 1901-20; Series VII, 1921
ff); others have given the of the volume cited
,
1915
, ‘Robert Parry's Diary’;
-
elegies on Siôn Tudur in
Jes. Coll. MS. at the Bodleian Library, Oxford
15;
-
W. J. Gruffydd
,
Llenyddiaeth Cymru o 1450 hyd 1600
, 1922
, 83-91;
-
Owen Jones
printed some of his work in
Ceinion Llenyddiaeth Gymreig
(‘’): ,
1876
.
Author:
Dr Enid Pierce Roberts, M.A., D.Litt., Bangor.
