Robert Hughes (poet)

Robert Hughes (Robin Ddu o Fon) (c.1744–1785) was a Welsh poet.

Life[]

Hughes was born at Caint Bach, in the parish of Penmynydd in Anglesey about 1744. After receiving an education from the parish priest, he became a schoolmaster at Amlwch. Later he spent twenty years in London as barrister's clerk.^[1]

Ultimately Hughes's health failed; he returned to Wales, acted as a schoolmaster at Carnarvon, and died of consumption 27 February 1785, aged 41. He was buried in the parish churchyard of , Carnarvonshire, where the Society of Gwyneddigion, of which he was a founder, erected a monument to his memory.^[1]

Works[]

Hughes's Cywydd Molawd Mon, and a couple of englynion appeared with a brief biographical notice by the vicar of Llanllyfni, Carnarvonshire, in the Diddanwch Teuluaidd, 1817. In the Brython, iii. 376, appeared his Cywydd Myfyrdod y Bardd am ei Gariad, pan oedd hi yn mordwyo o Fon i Fanaw; mewn cwch a elwid "Tarw", i.e. "The bard's meditation on his sweetheart's setting sail from Anglesey to the Isle of Man in a boat called the Taurus". This is dated 1763. There is a Cywydd y Byd by him in John Blackwell's magazine Y Cylchgrawn (i. 265, 1834), and a Beddargraph (epitaph) consisting of three englynion in the Greal (London, 1805), p. 72. Nine of his poems were published in Cyfres y Ceinion, Liverpool, 1879.^[1]

Notes[]

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1891). "Hughes, Robert (1744?-1785)". Dictionary of National Biography. 28. London: Smith, Elder & Co.