Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/100

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perhaps, his greatest work was his translation of Dr. Watts's hymns. The titles of his published works are as follows: 1. ‘Salmau Dafydd: wedi eu cyfansoddi yn ol jaith y Testament Newydd … yn Saesneg gan J. Watts, D.D.,’ London, 1753; 2nd edit. Llandovery, 1766; 3rd edit. Carmarthen, 1817. 2. ‘Difyrwch y Pererinion o Fawl i'r Oen, yn cynwys Hymnau ar amryw Destunau o'r Ysgrythyr Lan,’ 1754; 2nd edit. Carmarthen, 1763. 3. Ibid., ‘Yr Ail Ran’ (the second part), Llandovery, 1764. 4. Ibid., ‘Y Drydedd Ran’ (the third part), Carmarthen, 8vo, 1770. These three parts were republished in one book under the title of ‘Hymnau a Chaniadau Ysbrydol, gan I. Watts, D.D., ac a gyfieithwyd i'r Gymraeg gan D. J.,’ Carmarthen, 1775; 2nd edit. Trevecca, 1791; 3rd edit. Carmarthen, 1794. 5. ‘Caniadau Dewisol wedi eu hamcanu mewn iaith esmwyth er budd a gwasanaeth i Blant, yn Saesneg gan Isaac Watts, D.D.,’ Carmarthen, 1771, 8vo. 6. ‘Can Ddewisol … ar ddull ymddiddan rhwng Proffesswr hunangyfiawn a'i gydwybod,’ Carmarthen, 1779.

[Yr Adolygydd, ii. 475–95; Rees's Hist. of Protestant Nonconformity in Wales, pp. 401–3; Rowlands's Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry; Enwogion y Ffydd, ii. 145–50.]

D. Ll. T.

JONES, DAVID (fl. 1750–1780), Welsh poet and antiquary, otherwise known as Dafydd Sion Dafydd and Dewi Fardd, was presented by the poet Lewis Morris [q. v.] with a small supply of type, and set up as a printer at Trevriw, Carnarvonshire. He wrote much himself, but owing to his limited supply of type was at first compelled to print his books at other presses. In 1745 ‘Histori Nicodemus,’ a somewhat poor translation by Jones of ‘Nichodemus Gospell’ (Ames, Typogr. Antiq. 1812, ed. ii. 144), was printed at Wrexham, while some of his other publications were issued at Shrewsbury and Chester. He collected and edited a volume of previously unpublished Welsh poetry under the title of ‘Blodeugerdd Cymru,’ Shrewsbury, 1759; 2nd ed. Shrewsbury, 1779, 12mo; 3rd ed. Holywell, 1823, 8vo. In this he has included some of his own poems, which do not possess any merit. He was more successful as a collector of ancient manuscripts. Some of these, consisting of prose and verse, he published in ‘Y Cydymaith Dyddan,’ Chester, 1766, 8vo. A portion of his manuscript collection is in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 9864–7, 14989, and 15046; cf. 14973–4 and 15012). Another portion of his collection was purchased by the Rev. H. D. Griffith of Carnarvon, and was largely used by the editors of ‘Myvyrian Archæology.’

[Williams's Eminent Welshmen; Rowlands's Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry, pp. 399, 451; Y Brython (Tremadoc, 1861), v. 41; Poetical Works of Goronwy Owen, ed. by Jones, ii. 195; British Museum Catalogue.]

D. Ll. T.

JONES, DAVID (1735–1810), Welsh revivalist, born in 1735 at Abergeiliog in the parish of Llanllwni, Carmarthenshire, was educated at Carmarthen. He was ordained in 1758, and was curate, first of Llanafan Fawr, Brecknockshire, and then of Tydweiliog, Carnarvonshire, removing in 1760 to the curacy of Trefethin and Caldicott, Monmouthshire, where he first manifested his religious fervour. He subsequently held a curacy near Bristol and another in Wiltshire, where he made the acquaintance of Selina Hastings, countess of Huntingdon [q. v.], through whose recommendation he was, in 1768, made vicar of Llangan, Glamorganshire. In 1794 he removed to Maenornawan in Pembrokeshire, where he remained till his death in August 1810.

Soon after he was settled at Llangan, Jones threw in his lot with the evangelical party in South Wales, of which Daniel Rowlands of Llangeitho might be said to be the leader, and became a regular attendant at the Welsh Methodist ‘Association,’ which had been founded with Whitefield's aid in 1742. He frequently visited Lady Huntingdon's college at Trevecca, and was a constant preacher at her chapels, particularly at that in Spa Fields, where on her death in 1791 he preached a funeral sermon (London, 1791, 8vo). Many complaints were made against him to Dr. Barrington and Dr. Watson, successive bishops of Llandaff, for his irregularity in preaching, both outside the limits of his own parish and in unconsecrated places; but he was not deprived of his living, like Rowlands and other clergymen, even though he became the virtual leader of the movement after Rowlands's death in 1790. He was strongly opposed to the separation of the methodists from the church of England, and succeeded in defeating a proposal to that effect at a meeting of the ‘Association’ over which he presided at Llangeitho in 1809, but after his death during the following year the separation was effected.

Jones occupied a unique position among the Welsh preachers of his day; his amiable and cheerful countenance, his sweet and musical voice soothed hearers who had often been driven nearly frantic by the violent oratory of other revivalists. Only two of his sermons were published—‘The Funeral Sermon of the Countess of Huntingdon’ (vide supra) and ‘A Sermon preached at the Second Annual Meeting of the London