Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Williams, Taliesin, 1787-1847
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- Ab Iolo, 1787-1847
- Taliesin ab Iolo, 1787-1847
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Taliesin Williams (Ab Iolo or Taliesin ab Iolo, 1787-1847), schoolmaster and author, was the son of Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg). He was born in Cardiff on 9 July 1787 and grew up in the Vale of Glamorgan. He became a schoolmaster at Gileston, then an assistant at the Rev. David Davis's school in Neath. In 1816 he opened a school in Merthyr Tydfil, which he ran for the rest of his life.
Taliesin assisted his father with the publication of Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain (1829). Taliesin inherited his father's manuscripts and his druidic beliefs, oblivious to Iolo's inventions, and became his foremost defender. He edited selections from Iolo's manuscripts, published posthumously by the Welsh MSS Society as Iolo Manuscripts (Liverpool, 1848). His poems Cardiff Castle (1827) and The Doom of Colyn Dolphyn (1837) were based on Iolo's manuscripts. He became an important figure in the eisteddfodau of the time, winning prizes for his essays and poetry.
Taliesin married Mary Petherick of Merthyr Tydfil and they had six children, including the Edward Williams (1826-1886), the Middlesbrough ironmaster. Taliesin Williams died in Merthyr on 16 February 1847.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
lcnaf