EDWARDS, WILLIAM (1790 - 1855), Gwilym Callestr (but much better known as ' Wil Ysgeifiog'), poet

Born in a cottage called Plas Iolyn, at Caerwys, Flintshire. He was a millwright, but excessive drinking turned him into a tramp and a beggar - Talhaiarn (Gwaith, ii, 200-2) has an amusing tale about him. He was more than once confined in an asylum, and in fact died in Denbigh asylum. But he was a poet of merit, and in particular a good englynwr. He took the prize at Beaumaris eisteddfod in 1832 for an awdl (Seren Gomer, 1832, 312), and at Mold, 1823, for an englyn. His elegy on Thomas Price (Carnhuanawc) in 1853, printed in Golud yr Oes, 1863, 112-3), was written in the asylum. Much of his work is scattered through the pages of Seren Gomer, Y Gwladgarwr, Yr Eurgrawn, Y Geninen, and Cymru (O.M.E.). He published a volume, Cell Callestr (Trefriw, 1815), of his own poetry and that of others. Talhaiarn (John Jones, 1810 - 1869) and Caledfryn (William Williams, 1801 - 1869) had a monument placed on his grave at Ysgeifiog, Flintshire. The precise days of his birth and death have not been ascertained.

Author

• Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Sources

• Hanes llenyddiaeth Gymreig o 1651 O.C. hyd 1850 (1893), 596
• Cymru (O.M.E.), xviii, 302

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q18535598

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/