Author: Prichard, Thomas Jeffery Llewelyn
Biography:
PRICHARD, Thomas Jeffery Llewelyn (1790-1862: Adams)
No official records of his birth or death have been found but he was a prominent author in his lifetime, known especially for the creation of the fictional hero of his only novel, Twm Shon Catti. He was born in Builth, Brecknockshire (Breconshire), Wales, in 1790, the son of a lawyer, Thomas Prichard, and his wife Anne (birth name unknown). He became an itinerant actor and bookseller, carrying his own works with him to sell wherever he went. His stage career may have started early, since Theatrical Poems (1822) satirizes figures of the London theatre. It is possible that his stage name was "Mr. Jefferies." About 1824 he established a base in Aberystwyth and promptly published The New Aberystwyth Guide (1824). He married Naomi James of Builth at St. Mary’s, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, on 13 Jan. 1826; she is listed as a straw-hat maker in the Aberystwyth directory. They had six children. His career on the stage came to an end when his nose was cut off in a fencing accident; thereafter he wore a prosthetic wax nose attached to his spectacles. His last publication was Heroines of Welsh History (1854), which cost him years of labour and which he sold door to door without much success. After the death of his wife in 1848, he sank into acute poverty. But he refused the offer of a place in the workhouse. Living alone in Swansea, the author of “Twm Shon Catti” attracted the attention of the Cambria Daily Leader, which started up a subscription for him on 23 Dec. 1861 and arranged for someone to look after him. On the morning of 11 Jan. 1862, however, he was found dying of burns suffered from a fall into his own fire. His grave in the Danygraig Cemetery, Swansea, was rediscovered in 1987. (Sam Adams, Thomas Jeffery Llewelyn Prichard [2000]; findmypast.com 16 Nov. 2023; The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales [2008]; DWB 15 Nov. 2023; Cambria Daily Leader 3 Jan. 1862; South Wales Evening Post 10 Jan. 1987)
Other Names:
- T. J. Llewelyn Prichard
- T. Jeffery Llewelyn Prichard
- Llewelyn Prichard