Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phylip, William

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1167552Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 45 — Phylip, William1896John Edward Lloyd

PHYLIP, WILLIAM (1590?–1670), Welsh poet, was the son of Phylip Sion ap Tomas (d. 1625), and was born about 1590. In 1649, on the death of Charles I, he wrote a Welsh elegy upon the king, which was printed in the same year. Under the Commonwealth his property at Hendre Fechan, near Barmouth, was confiscated, and he himself was forced to go into hiding. After an interval he made his peace with the authorities, who are said to have sought to curb his spirit by making him a collector of their taxes. He died at a great age on 11 Feb. 1669–70, and was buried in Llanddwywe churchyard, where his tombstone is still inscribed ‘W. PH. 1669, FE. XI.’ Three of his ‘cywyddau’ have appeared in the ‘Brython’ (iv. 147, 185, 285), and five other poems in the ‘Blodeugerdd’ of 1759 (pp. 8, 125, 227, 390, 413).

[Rowlands's Cambrian Bibliography, 1869; preface to Eos Ceiriog, 1823.]

J. E. L.