Details of Sculptor

Surname

Williams

Alternative Surname

First Name

Edward

Initial of Surname

W

Year of Birth/Baptism

1746

Flourished

Year of Death

1826

Biographical Details

Edward Williams (better known in his fatherland as Iolo Morganwg), was a prime force behind the cultural revival that saw the birth of modern Wales, though during his chequered and multi-faceted life he also struggled as a provincial poet in London, as a medievalist, and as a source of druidic knowledge. He was a manipulator and victim of the world of literary patronage, an opium eater and for a time, a marble mason. He was born in Penon, Glamorganshire, the stone of a stone mason. His mother, whose maiden name was Mathews, was of good birth and education. As a boy he was too weak to attend school and from the age of nine until his mother’s death in 1770 he worked desultorily at his father’s trade. He then left Glamorgan and for about seven years worked as a journeyman mason in various parts of England, before returning home and marrying Margaret Roberts of Marychurch in 1781.
His trade card of 1779 has survived: on it he advertised himself as ‘Edward Williams, jun./ Marble Mason / at Flimston, near Cowbridge’ and added that he could make ‘all sorts of Chimney-pieces, Monuments, Tombs, Head-stones, and every other Article in MARBLE and FREESTONE-MASONRY in the newest and neatest Manner’. Williams also stated that he had ‘for many years regularly followed this trade in London and other capital towns under the best Masters’ and that ‘as there are various Sorts of good Marble found in many parts of GLAMORGAN, Tables, Chimney-pieces, &c of it may be had very cheap (Banks 106.31).
He signs an undated oval wall-tablet to Anthony Jones at Llantwit, Glamorgan; this was erected about 1800 and is very like the contemporary work of Thomas King of Bath.
Literary References: DNB; Univ of Wales website
Archival References: GPC
Collections of Drawings: National Lib of Wales (including many original designs for wall-monuments etc)