Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Walters, John
WALTERS, JOHN (1721–1797), Welsh lexicographer, son of John Walters, was born in August 1721 near the Forest, Llanedi, Carmarthenshire. Having taken orders, he was instituted to the rectory of Llandough (1 March 1759), with the vicarage of St. Hilary (10 Aug. 1759) in the neighbourhood of Cowbridge, Glamorganshire, and in later years became prebendary of Llandaff. He also held the post of domestic chaplain to the Mansel family at Margam (Arch. Cambr. 2nd ser. ii. 238).
Walters's chief work was ‘An English–Welsh Dictionary,’ 4to, of which the first three parts were printed at Llandovery, commencing 5 June 1770; parts four to twelve inclusive being printed at Cowbridge (1772–1780), and the remaining six parts in London (1782–1794). It was in connection with this work that the first printing press was established in Glamorgan, Walters's printer (Rhys Thomas) removing from Llandovery to Cowbridge so as to be within a few miles of the compiler. An unpublished dictionary, compiled on the same lines by William Gambold (1672–1728), had come into Walters's hands, and was utilised by him for his own work, which, even to the present day, is ‘unrivalled for its excellence in the idiomatic renderings of sentences, and shows the compiler to have been a master of the idiom and phraseology of the Welsh language’ (Williams, Eminent Welshmen, p. 516). The work proved a great financial loss to the author. A second edition was issued in 1815 (Dolgelly, 2 vols. 4to), and a third was brought out, under the editorship of Walter Davies [q. v.] (Gwallter Mechain), by the compiler's granddaughter, Hannah Walters, under the patronage of the first Lord Dinorben, in 1828 (Denbigh, 2 vols. 4to). His ‘Dissertation on the Welsh Language’ was appended to each edition. It was previously published separately at Cowbridge in 1771, and was probably the first book ever printed in Glamorgan.
Besides the works mentioned, Walters was the author of: 1. Two Welsh sermons, to which was added an inquiry, written from an Arminian standpoint, into the doctrines of election and predestination (Cowbridge, 1772, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1803; 3rd edit. 1804). This work was translated into English by E. Owen of Studley, Warwickshire, in 1783. 2. ‘An Ode to Humanity’ (appended to a volume of his son's poetry, Wrexham, 1786, 8vo). Several of Walters's letters to Owen Jones (1741–1814) [q. v.] are preserved in the British Museum (Addit. MSS. No. 15024 to 15031), and Addit. MS. 15001 is a collection of early Welsh poems partly transcribed by him. Letters addressed by him to Edward Davies (1756–1831) are also preserved at the Cardiff public library.
Walters died on 1 June 1797, and was survived by one of his three sons, Henry, who became a printer at Cowbridge and died in 1829 (Rowland, Cambrian Bibliography, p. 650).
The eldest son, John Walters (1759–1789), poet, was born in 1759, and became a scholar of Jesus College, Oxford, whence he matriculated on 17 Dec. 1777. He served for a time as sub-librarian in the Bodleian Library, and graduated B.A. on 21 June 1781 and M.A. on 10 July 1784. He was appointed fellow of his college and first master of Cowbridge school, but in 1784 became headmaster of Ruthin school, being also rector of Efenechtyd in the same district. He died on 28 June 1789, leaving a widow and two daughters, one of whom, Hannah, brought out the third edition of her grandfather's dictionary. He was buried at Efenechtyd, where a monument, with a long Latin inscription by his father, was erected to his memory.
While still an undergraduate he published a volume of ‘Poems with Notes’ (commonly known as the ‘Bodleian Poems,’ Oxford, 1780, 8vo), written before the age of nineteen, and including a poem by a brother Daniel (1762–1787). Many of these poems were republished in Pryse's ‘Breezes from the Welsh Mountains’ (Llanidloes, 1858), and perhaps the best (‘Llewelyn and his Bards’) was printed in ‘Old Welsh Chips’ (1888, p. 298). His other works, apart from published sermons, were: 1. ‘Translated Specimens of Welsh Poetry in English Verse, with some Original Pieces and Notes,’ London, 1772, 8vo. 2. ‘An Ode on the Immortality of the Soul, occasioned by the Opinions of Dr. Priestley; and Life: an Elegy,’ Wrexham, 1776, 8vo. He contributed many notes to the historical introduction of Jones's ‘Relicks of the Welsh Bards’ (1784, see note p. 7; cf. 2nd edit. 1794, p. 22), where it is also mentioned that he projected an edition of Llywarch Hên's poems, ‘with a literal [English] version and notes.’ A translation of one of that poet's elegies by Walters was printed in the third edition of the ‘History of Wales’ by William Warrington. For the Society of Royal British Bowmen, whose meetings he is said to have ‘often enlivened by his poetic talents in the character of poet laureate of the society,’ he edited a reprint of Roger Ascham's ‘Toxophilus: the Schole or Partitions of Shooting’ (Wrexham, 1778, 8vo; 2nd edit. Wrexham, 1821). He is said to have written a ‘Letter to Dr. Priestley,’ to which was added ‘A Discourse on the Natural Connection of Civil and Ecclesiastical Establishments.’ Several sermons by him were also published (Newcome, Memoir of Gabriel Goodman, 1855, p. 50, and App. K; Rowlands, Cambrian Bibl. p. 602; Foulkes, Enwogion Cymru, p. 975; Nichols, Lit. Anecd. viii. 122; Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, where, however, Walters is erroneously said to have lived much beyond 1789).
[Rowlands's Cambrian Bibliography, pp. 347, 528, 535, 616, 685; Ashton's Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymreig, pp. 454–5; Red Dragon (1887), xi. 269; Catalogue Cardiff Welsh Library, pp. 503–4, and biographical notes (manuscript) in copies of Dictionary at the Library.]