Author: Prichard, Rees
Biography:
PRICHARD, Rees (c. 1573-1644: ODNB)
Rees or Rhys or Rice Prichard is a “prior” author and a foreign-language one whose popular Welsh poems were translated into English for the first time after 1770. The son of Dafydd ap Richard and his wife Mary (birth name not known), he was born at Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, Wales, was educated at Jesus College, Oxford (matric. 1597, BA 1602), and was ordained priest in the Church of England in 1602. He ministered at Llandingad church, Llandovery, for the rest of his life, although other livings and honours were bestowed on him. At an unknown date he married Gwenllian (birth name not known): they had one son and two grandchildren. He published the first surviving Welsh catechism and one poem, also in Welsh, of a bishop’s advice to his flock. He made his will on 2 Dec. 1644 and died shortly after, apparently at Llandovery. After his death a large collection of the short poems that he had composed for the instruction of his uneducated parishioners was published, the first edition of 1659 being followed by further editions and many reprintings, generally accompanied by the short biography of the author from Anthony Wood’s Athenae Oxonienses, which is the primary source of all later ones. ODNB gives a figure of 52 editions before 1820. The first translation into English, in this bibliography, was made by William Evans (fl 1768-76), who was also a native Welsh speaker and a clergyman (but Presbyterian). His origins are obscure and very little is known about him but he appears to have been born at Cefn-gwili, Llanedy, Carmarthenshire, and to have attended the Carmarthen Academy from 1768 to 1772. He first published both his translation and a frequently reprinted New English-Welsh Dictionary by subscription in 1771: if he was still a student at that time it is a remarkable achievement, but it is possible that he entered the Academy later than usual. A child of this name was baptised at the Newhouse Chapel (Independent) in Llanedy on 17 Nov. 1745, with no parents’ names recorded, and that could well be him. He was minister first at Sherborne, Dorset (1776), and then at Moretonhampstead, Devon, but resigned on account of illness. Nothing further is known of him. (ODNB 13 Nov. 2023; ancestry.com 13 Nov. 2023; findmypast.com 13 Nov. 2023; DWB [Prichard and Evans]) HJ