John Edwards (1747–1792)

John Edwards (Sion Ceiriog) (1747–1792) was a Welsh poet. He co-founded a London Welsh literary and cultural society.

Life

Edwards was born at Crogen Wladys in Glyn Ceiriog in 1747. He, Owen Jones (Myfyr), and Robert Hughes (Robin Ddu o Fon), were the founders of Cymdeithas y Gwyneddigion, or the Venedotian Society, in 1770. Sion Ceiriog, as Edwards was called, wrote an awdl (ode) for the meeting of the society on Saint David's Day, 1778. He was its secretary in 1779–1780, and its president in 1783.[1]

Edwards received an honorary medal from the Society of Gwyneddigion in 1780 for a blank verse elegy to his fellow poet Richard Morris.[2]

Memorial

Edwards died suddenly in 1792, aged 45. John Jones (Jac Glan-y-gors) contributed some memorial verses to the Geirgrawn of June 1796 and wrote: "To the memory of John Edwards, Glynceiriog, in the parish of Llangollen, Denbighshire, who was generally known as Sion Ceiriog, a poet, an orator, and an astronomer, a curious historian of sea and land, a manipulator of musical instruments, a true lover of his country and of his Welsh mother tongue, who, to the great regret of his friends, died and was buried in London, September 1792."[1]

References

1. "John Edwards (1747–1792)" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
2. Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 9 April 2020.

Attribution  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "John Edwards (1747–1792)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.