ROBERTS, WILLIAM JOHN (Gwilym Cowlyd; 1828 - 1904), poet, printer, bookseller, bibliophile, and eccentric
Name: William John Roberts
Pseudonym: Gwilym Cowlyd
Date of birth: 1828
Date of death: 1904
Parent: John Roberts
Gender: Male
Occupation: poet, printer, bookseller, bibliophile, and eccentric
Area of activity: Business and Industry; Eisteddfod; Literature and Writing; Poetry; Printing and Publishing
Author: Henry Parry Jones
Born at Trefriw, Caernarfonshire in 1828, the son of John Roberts, Tyddyn Gwilym. He was a nephew of Ieuan Glan Geirionydd.
He founded the Gorsedd of Geirionydd (1863), in opposition to the established Gorsedd of the Bards, which he denounced as heretical. Under his presidency as ‘Chief Bard Positive,’ Arwest Glan Geirionydd, a counter-eisteddfod, with its own gorsedd, was held annually near lake Geirionydd, near the reputed birthplace of Taliesin.
Among his productions are ‘Mynyddoedd Eryri’ and ‘Murmuron.’ He published the life and works of Ieuan Glan Geirionydd, the works of Owen Gethin Jones (Gweithiau Gethin ), and Diliau’r Delyn (old penillion).
He died early in December 1904 at Llanrwst, and was buried on 8 December in St. Mary’s churchyard there.
