Owen, Goronwy (Gronow)

(1723-1769?)

   The son of a tinker, he was born at Rhos Fawr, Anglesey. Given no encouragement from his drunken father, his education was left to his mother, and from 1737 to 1741 he was at Friars School, Bangor. He was ordained deacon in 1745 while at Jesus College, Oxford, but did not graduate. In 1748, now married, he took the mastership of a small endowed school at Donnington, Shropshire, and with it the curacy of the neighboring church of Uppington. His poor health was made worse by over-indulgence in alcohol. In 1758 he took charge of the school attached to William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia. Around 1760 he became minister of St. Andrew's, Brunswick County, Virginia, where he died. His poems are written in Cywydd, the strict Welsh meter. Some of his Welsh poems: "Calendr y Carwr (The Lover's Calendar)," "Cywydd y Farn Fawr (Lay of the Last Judgment)," "Cywydd y Gem neu'r Maen Gwerthfawr (Cywydd of the Gem or the Precious Stone)," "Cywydd yn ateb Huw'r Bardd Coch o Fôn (Cywydd in Answer to Huw the Red Poet [Hugh Hughes])."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Faber Book of Epigrams and Epitaphs. Geoffrey Grigson, ed. Faber and Faber, 1977. The Oxford Book of Welsh Verse in English. Gwyn Jones, ed. Oxford University Press, 1977.