WARING, ELIJAH (c. 1788 - 1857) merchant, author and publisher
Date of birth: c. 1788
Date of death: 1857
Spouse: Deborah Waring (née Price)
Child: Anna Letitia Waring
Parent: Jeremiah Waring
Gender: Male
Occupation: merchant, author and publisher
Area of activity: History and Culture; Literature and Writing; Politics, Government and Political Movements; Religion; Printing and Publishing
Author: Griffith John Williams
Son of Jeremiah Waring, of Alton, Hampshire. He came to Wales c. 1810. He began to take an interest in the history of Wales, and in order to enlighten Englishmen in regard to that subject he started an English periodical at Swansea in 1813, The Cambrian Visitor: a Monthly Miscellany, which had a life of about eight months. He was the principal editor, and it is said that he lost a lot of money on the venture. In 1814 he settled at Neath and, in 1817, he married Deborah, daughter of Peter Price, and sister of Joseph Tregelles Price.
Waring was a Quaker and used to preach in Nonconformist chapels in the neighbourhood. Later, he joined the Wesleyan body. He became well known as an advocate of liberty in the state and in the church, and he took a prominent part in the movement for Parliamentary reform; it was he who wrote several of the leading articles on this subject published in the new Swansea newspaper, The Cambrian. It is not surprising, therefore, that he became fond of the company of Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg). After the death of Iolo in 1826 Waring wrote his reminiscences of him in a series of articles in The Cambrian. In 1850, he published his famous biography, Recollections and Anecdotes of Edward Williams, the Bard of Glamorgan - pleasant and amusing, but quite certainly one of the most misleading books.
In 1835 he moved to Cardiff and from there went to Hotwells, Clifton. He returned to Neath c. 1855 and died at the home of his son on Sunday, 29 March 1857.
He wrote much English verse, and his daughter, ANNA LETITIA WARING (1823 - 1910), came to some prominence as a hymnist (see D.N.B. ).
Author
- Emeritus Professor Griffith John Williams, (1892 - 1963)
- 'Recollections and Anecdotes of Edward Williams, The Bard of Glamorgan', The Monmouthshire Merlin, 5 October 1850
- D. Rhys Phillips, The History of the Vale of Neath (Swansea 1925), 442-3
Sources
- Wikipedia Article: Elijah Waring
Further Reading
- Wikidata: Q5361007
Additional Links
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
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