Introduction

Biography

Owens had a rough start in life: When he was two years old, his old­er brot­her came down with small­pox, and his par­ents sent him to stay with his fa­ther’s sis­ter, Jane Ow­en, in Llan­be­drog. A few years lat­er, his mo­ther died in child­birth. His fa­ther then went to sea as a ship’s stew­ard, but died in a hos­pi­tal in Mel­bourne, Aus­tral­ia.

Raised by his aunt, Will­iams showed mu­sic­al gifts ear­ly, and for a while led the sing­ing at a Wes­ley­an cha­pel. He left school at age 12, and at age 16 be­came an as­sist­ant gard­en­er in Gell­i­wig Hall. It there he first read the work of Eb­en­ezer Tho­mas and be­came enam­ored of po­et­ry. Un­der the tu­te­lage of the head gard­en­er, he learned the ru­di­ments of verse.

After his aunt’s death, he worked at Dix­on’s Nur­ser­ies in Ches­ter, England; at Lord Vane-Tem­pest’s es­tate, Plas Machynlleth (seat of the Mar­quis of Lon­don­der­ry); with a whole­sale mer­chant in Li­ver­pool; in the cot­ton trade, and fin­al­ly land­ed a per­ma­nent po­si­tion in Will­iam Will­iams’ ware­house in But­ton Street, where he stayed 10 years.

In 1884, he be­came min­is­ter of Ken­sing­ton con­gre­ga­tion­al cha­pel, a min­is­try which last­ed 46 years.

Williams was ac­tive in the Welsh Eis­tedd­fods for ma­ny years, win­ning priz­es and ad­mi­ra­tion for his gifts. The Uni­ver­si­ty of Wales award­ed him an ho­nor­a­ry MA de­gree in 1917, and in 1927, he be­came pre­si­dent of the Welsh Con­gre­ga­tion­al Union.