Author: Pugh, David
Biography:
PUGH, David (fl 1783-9)
Pugh’s only known published works are both short: A Poem on the Approaching Peace (1783), of which no extant copy is recorded; and Erginfield: an Antiquarian Fragment (1789), a pamphlet with four pages of verse by way of introduction, on the subject of a supposed ancient Welsh border kingdom. Erginfield is dated from the British Museum. Pugh’s origins are uncertain and his name is quite common (especially in Wales), but it may be possible to narrow the range of candidates by using internal evidence and some extracts from newspapers. An author’s note in ms in the Bodley copy of Erginfield indicates that Pugh was inspired by the work of his friend Dr. Campbell and other gentlemen of Hereford on the “Bowmen of Archenfield.” The Hereford Journal in 1786 noted the recent death of a local property owner, David Pugh, and in 1792 announced property available in Wales through David Pugh of Caerhowel, Montgomeryshire. These suggest a Welshman with interests both in Wales and in Herefordshire across the border. Two or three baptisms of David, son of David Pugh, appear in the records for Montgomeryshire c. 1740-50. (It is unlikely that the antiquary was the Rev. David Pugh [1739-1816], son of Hugh Pugh, born in Merionethshire and rector of St. Mary, Pembrokeshire: he would have flourished his credentials on the title-page.) Reviewers were scathing about the poem in 1783: “Never was the return of peace celebrated in terms so contemptible as in this rhapsody,” etc. (ancestry.com 25 Nov. 2023; findmypast.com 25 Nov. 2023; DWB 25 Nov. 2023; CR 55 [1783], 148) HJ