EDWARDS, JOHN (Sion y Potiau) (1700?–1776), poet, born in Glyn Ceiriog in Denbighshire about 1700, was a weaver by trade, but is said in early life to have spent seven years as assistant to a bookseller in London, and during that time is supposed to have gained considerable information. He was a poet of some merit, had two sons named Cain and Abel, of whom some local poet wrote the following jingle: —
Cain ac Abal. cyn ac ebill,
Abel a Chain, ebill a chyn.
Cain gained some note as a publisher of almanacs. Edwards prepared his own monument, and inscribed thereon 1 Cor. xv. 52, in Latin. He died in 1776. His translation of Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress' was published in 1767–8.
[Rowland's Cambrian Bibliography.]
EDWARDS, JOHN (1714–1785), dissenting minister at Leeds, Yorkshire, was born in 1714. He published in 1758 'A Vindication of the Protestant Doctrine of Justification and its Prechers and Professors from the unjust Charge of Antinomianism; extracted from a letter of the Rev. Mr. Robt. Trail, a minister in the city of London, to a minister in the country,' his object being to testify to the world the doctrines advanced by him in his public ministry, which were laid down by Trail in this letter. In 1762 appeared 'The Safe Retreat from impending Judgments,' the substance of a sermon preached by Edwards at Leeds, a second edition of which was issued in 1773. At the end of this sermon is advertised 'The Christian Indeed,' another work by the same author. Edwards also edited 'A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual songs for the use of Serious and Devout Christians of all Denominations,' of which a second edition, 'with alterations,' was published in 1709. He died in 1785. A mezzotint portrait after J. Russell, engraved by J. Watson, is dated 1772.
[Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Bromley's Cat. of Portraits, 390.]
EDWARDS, JOHN (Sion Ceiriog) (1747–1792), Welsh poet, was born at Crogen Wladys in Glyn Ceiriog in 1747. He, Owen Jones (Myfyr), and Robert Hughes (Robin Ddu o Fon), were the founders of Cymdeithas y Gwyneddigion, or the Venedotian Society, 1770. Sion Ceiriog, as he was called, wrote an audi (ode) for the meeting of the society on St. David's day, 1778; he was its secretary in 1779–80, and its president in 1783. He died suddenly in 1792, aged 45, John Jones, Glan-y-Gors, contributed some memorial verses to the 'Geirgrawn' of June 1796, with these prefatory remarks: 'To the memory of John Edwards, Glynceiriog, in the parish of Llangollen, Denbighshire, who was generally known as Sion Ceiriog, a poet, an orator, and an astronomer, a curious historian of sea and land, a manipulator of musical instruments, a true lover of his country and of his Welsh mother tongue, who, to the great regret of his friends, died and was buried in London, September 1792.'
[Foulkoe's Geirlyfr Bywgraffladol, 1870.]
EDWARDS, JOHN (1751–1832), poetical writer, the eldest son of James Edwards of Old Court, co. Wicklow, by Anne, second daughter of Thomas Tenison, a son of Archbishop Tenison, was born in 1751. He became an officer of light dragoons in the volunteer army of Ireland, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In honour of the force to which he belonged he wrote 'The Patriot Soldier: a Poem, Nottingham, 1784, 4to, 38 pp. He also published 'Kathleen: a Ballad from Ancient Irish Tradition,' 1808, 4to; 'Abradates and Panthea; a Tragedy, 1808, 8vo; 'Interests of Ireland,' London, 1815, and an essay upon the improvement of bank-notes, Liverpool, 1620. Edwards died owner of Old Court in 1832. He married Charlotte, fifth daughter of John Wright of Nottingham, who bore him three sons and two daughters.
[Burke's Landed Gentry; Watt's Bibliotheca Brit.; Creswell's Nottingham Printing. p, 38 ]
EDWARDS, JONATHAN, D.D. (1629–1712), controversialist was born at Wrexham, Denbighshire, in 1629. He entered as a servitor at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1655, and took his B.A. degree in October 1659. In 1662 he was elected fellow of Jesus, and proceeded B.D, in March 1669. His first preferment was the rectory of Kiddington, Oxfordshire, which he exchanged in 1681 for that of Hinton-Ampner, Hampshire. On the promotion of John Lloyd, principal of Jesus College, to the bishopric of St. David's, Edwards was unanimously elected (2 Nov. 1686) his successor; he was made D.D. on 1 Dec. 1686, and held the office of vice-chancellor from 1689 to 1691. In 1687 he became treasurer of Llandaff, and was proctor for the chapter of Llandaff in the convocation of 1702, He held, apparently along with
