Oswestry, although not the birth-place of many distinguished men, has amongst its present population some “choice spirits,” men born not, perhaps, to wield “the fierce democracy,” or to attract the nation’s glare by the display of brilliant talents, yet who possess the happy art of imparting sterling benefits to their fellow-men, and scattering blessings all around them. We could point to gentlemen, still honourably connected with the borough, whose good names must be well-deserved, because they have been earned among their We subjoin a few sketches of worthies that did the “State some service,” and whose connection with Oswestry claims for them a notice in these pages:— Dr. Thomas Bray, an eminently pious and learned divine of the 17th century, was educated in Oswestry. He was afterwards entered of Hart Hall, Oxford, took his degree of Master of Arts there, was chosen by Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, to model the infant church at Maryland, and afterwards took the degree of Doctor in Divinity. He returned from Maryland, after a long and useful residence there, and rendered immense service to the cause of foreign missions, by his numerous publications and remarkable personal exertions. He closed a useful life in 1730, having reached the age of seventy-three years. He was born at Marton, in Salop. John Freeman Milward Dovaston, M.A.—The death of this sweet poet, accomplished musician, and profound naturalist, occurred in August, 1854. Mr. Dovaston was not a native of Oswestry, but his birth-place (Westfelton) being so near to the borough, and his social connexion with it so constant and intimate during the whole of his life, that he may fairly be ranked among the celebrities of the town. He was the only son of John Dovaston, Esq., of “The Nursery,” at Westfelton, a man also of great natural talents, and who was distinguished for his science, learning and ingenuity. The subject of our present notice was educated for the Bar,
In early life he published a volume entitled “Fitz-Gwarine and other poems,” to which he made considerable additions in later years. He also published an able discourse on Natural History, and contributed two lectures on Music and National Melody. He was the author of a most interesting sketch of Bewick, the clever wood-engraver, whom Mr. Dovaston styled “the celebrated xyographer and illustrator of nature;” wrote several prologues and epilogues to histrionic performances for charitable purposes; and employed his graceful pen so long as Providence gave him mental and bodily strength. For several years, however, he was confined to his bed, and died at the age of 72 years. His education was commenced at Oswestry Free Grammar School, to which Institution he reverts, in the pride of his manhood and the fervent inspiration of the poet; and subsequently he was removed to Shrewsbury School, where he remained for some years, under the able tuition of Dr. Butler, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield. Mr. Dovaston’s poetic genius led him almost entirely into the realms of nature. His ardent fancy revelled amid flowers and trees, murmuring rivulets and mountain torrents, or roamed among “boxen bowers” and greenwood shades, where no sounds are heard but the drowsy hum of bees, the joyous notes of the mavis or the lark, or the plaintive warblings of his “bonny robin.” His metrical romance of “Fitz-Gwarine” Guto (y Glyn,) or Griffith, of Glyn, having been elected a burgess of Oswestry, is entitled from that distinction, as well as from his genius as a poet, to a brief notice. We have already quoted from his quaint description of Oswestry, but we shall now give it entire, as it was this production of his muse that procured for him the honour of enrolment as a burgess of the town. He was a native of Llangollen, and domestic bard to the Abbot of Llanegwestl, or Valle Crucis, near that town, to whom several of his poems are addressed. He is represented as witty and social, and was an acceptable guest at the halls of the Welsh nobility and gentry in his triennial visitations through the Principality. His gentle muse must have been more than ordinarily gracious when he poured forth such mellifluous strains as the following, in honour of Oswestry:—
Humphrey Humphreys, D.D., an eminent prelate, born November 24th, 1648, was for some years placed at the Free School of Oswestry, under the care of his uncle, Humphrey Wynn, A.M., who was master of the school and vicar of the parish. Bishop Humphreys was an able Welsh antiquary, and wrote some memoirs of eminent Welshmen, in addition to those contained in Wood’s AthenÆ Oxonienses, printed in the last edition of that work, and in the first volume of the Cambrian Register. “He was a person of excellent virtues during the whole course of his life, and in his latter years of a piety so extraordinary, as has but few examples.” Thomas Jones, son of John Williams, was born in Oswestry, and distinguished himself as an able defender of the Protestant faith. Having received his early education in his native town, he was entered at Jesus College, Oxford, at the commencement of the rebellion, but he left the University soon after, and returned when Oxford was surrendered to the Parliament, in 1646. He became Fellow of University College, by authority, of the parliamentary visitors, in 1648, and was remarkably zealous in the republican cause. He took the degree of M.A. in the year following, and in 1655 became rector of Castell Caerinion, in Montgomeryshire, where he acquired a knowledge of the Welsh language, to serve those parts where the orthodox clergy were rejected. His subsequent life was marked by strong zeal against papacy, and in an action for slander brought against him by Dr. Morley, Bishop of Winchester, whom he charged as a promoter of popery, he was fined £300, and the rectory of Llandyrnog, to which he had been appointed, was sequestered for the payment of it. He continued this severe course of Humphrey Kynaston, surnamed The Wild.—This remarkable man, whose exploits would furnish skilful romance-writers with materials for at least three entertaining volumes, was not a native of Oswestry, but as there is a tradition that his first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Meredydd ab Hywel ab Morris, of Oswestry, and another that she was Margaret, daughter of William Griffith, of Oswestry, called Coch-William, or the Red, we have deemed his history worthy of brief narration in this volume. Kynaston was son of Sir Roger Kynaston, of Hordley, by Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Grey, Earl of Tankerville, by Antigony, daughter of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. The enormous debts he contracted by his imprudent life and conduct caused him to be outlawed, upon which he fled from Middle Castle, his usual place of residence, but which he had so neglected that it was falling into ruins, and sheltered himself in a cave in the western point of Nesscliff Rock, called to this day Kynaston’s Cave. The cave is large, and divided into two rooms by a pillar of the rock, upon which is carved “H. K. 1564.” Yorke says of him, that “he was a gentleman of many strange pranks, still the talk of the neighbouring peasantry. The cave in the rock, at Nesscliff, called Kynaston’s Cave, was the retreat of himself and mad companions. He was outlawed the sixth of Henry VII., pardoned the next year, and died in 1531.” Kynaston’s career was brief, but his exploits and vagaries within the short period of twelve months filled the country round with enthusiastic reports of his courage and semi-madness. His horse, somewhat resembling Edward Llwyd, or Lloyd, the celebrated antiquary, although not a native of Oswestry, was closely connected with it, as he was the natural son of Edward Lloyd, of Llanforda, a man of dissolute character, and who, after dissipating his estate, died without legitimate issue. Edward Llwyd was born in 1660, and at the age of seventeen was entered in Jesus College, Oxford. He studied fossils, and became under-keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, and in 1680 succeeded to the head-keeper’s place, vacant by the resignation of his friend and patron, Dr. Plot. In 1704 he took the degree of M.A. His researches into the languages, histories, and customs of the original inhabitants of Great Britain obtained for him a distinguished name; but the chief fruit of his studies and travels was his “ArchÆologiÆ Britannica,” of which Baxter, in a letter to Sir Hans Sloane, said, “That it was the work of an age, rather than of a few years; that it gave great light to the history and antiquities of Britain, and was an honour to his ancient country.” He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and in the following year the University gave “proof of the high esteem in which it held his extensive learning, by electing him Esquire Beadle in Divinity;” but he did not long enjoy the appointment, as he died after a few days’ illness, in June 1709. His manuscript collections, relating to Welsh and Irish antiquities, consisted of above forty volumes in folio, ten in quarto, and upwards of one hundred of smaller sizes. They were ultimately sold to Sir Thomas Seabright, of Beachwood, Herts, and were afterwards purchased from Sir John Seabright, part by the late Thomas Johnes, Esq., of Hafod, and the other William Maurice, of Cefn-y-Braich, and Hugh Morus, the Bard of Ceiriog.—These two able men, although not Oswestrians, were so closely connected with the town, as natives of the neighbouring parish of Llansilin, that a few words on their biography will not be misplaced. Mr. Maurice was an eminent antiquary, and the industrious collector of the library of manuscripts now in the Wynnstay library. He was descended from Lowri, sister of Owen Glyndwr, and what is singularly coincident, he married Letitia, a descendant of Glyndwr’s successful opponent, Henry Bolingbroke. She was a Kynaston, of Morton, descended from the Greys of Powys, and the Greys from Antigony, daughter of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, fourth son of Henry IV. William Maurice was so devoted to Welsh literature, that he erected close to his house, at Cefn-y-Braich, a building three stories in height, for his library. It was called “The Study,” but has long since been in ruins. Mr. Walter Davies says of it, “From what I recollect of it, and of a print in an old Oxford almanack of ‘Friar Bacon’s Study,’ in that university, I judge the one to have been a fac simile of the other.” This assiduous antiquary died from about 1680 to 1690. Hugh Morus, the Poet, as he is emphatically called, because he excelled all others in the smooth and flowing awen, or song-writing, was born at Pont-y-Meibion, in the Vale of Ceiriog, in the year 1622. He died in 1709, at the advanced Mr. John Reynolds.—This gentleman, a native of Oswestry, was a nephew of Mr. John Davies, of Rhiwlas, Denbighshire, author of a small work entitled “Heraldry Displayed.” After his uncle’s death he published a Book of Pedigrees, from Mr. Davies’s manuscript, in the quarto form. The Rev. Peter Roberts, A.M., an able writer on Welsh history, resided in Oswestry for some time. He was born at Rhuabon, Denbighshire, in 1760, and in 1810 was presented to the living of Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog. He was prevented by the delicate state of his health from residing on his living for more than a few of the summer months, his regular home being in the town of Oswestry, where he was generally respected for his literary talents and private worth. In 1814 the freedom of the borough was presented in full assembly to Mr. Roberts, as “Author of numerous and extensive publications,” “for his deep and laborious researches of ancient records,” and “in consideration of his profound learning.” Astronomy and the Oriental languages were his favourite studies in the early part of his life, and he had aspired to the Astronomical Chair in Trinity College, Dublin, as successor to the celebrated Archbishop Usher, whose friendship and regard he had long possessed. The illustration of his native language, and of the ancient history of the Cymry, afterwards deeply engaged his attention, and to the discussion of these subjects he brought such powers of mind, united with such multifarious learning, that he reminded his contemporaries of the gigantic power of the renowned Edward Llwyd, and “Dick Spot.”—A man figuring under this patronymic, but whose real name was Edward Morris, flourished at Oswestry some years ago. He was celebrated as a conjuror or professor of legerdemain, and pursued his tricks with such marvellous success that the name of “Dick Spot” was popular among the humbler classes throughout the district. He professed to tell a love-sick damsel who was to be her husband; to detect thieves by turning a key upon the Bible; and by other “craft and subtlety” inspired his credulous visitors with hopes of coming grandeur and overflowing fortunes, &c. At length death arrested Morris in his deceptive career, and his remains were consigned to the earth in Oswestry Church-yard. Hulbert, in a notice of Oswestry, in his “History of the County,” refers to Dick Spot’s career, and says, “On requesting an eccentric but ingenious inhabitant, now one of the Churchwardens, to furnish me with some particulars of a pamphlet said to be the Life of Dick Spot, he thus replied,—‘I know not who has got his life, but this I know, that I am in possession of his mortal remains in Mr. Robert Salter.—This gentleman’s family had for centuries been connected with Oswestry, the name of “Salter” being recorded in civic documents of very ancient date. He was author of a piscatorial work, entitled “The Modern Angler,” a brochure, written in a series of letters to a disciple of Isaac Walton, and evidencing a thoroughly-practical acquaintance with the art of angling. It was published in 1811. Like that celebrated lover of the finny tribes, he looks upon his favourite recreation with the warmest enthusiasm of his craft, and quotes Walton’s refreshing picture of some of the angler’s joys on closing a long day’s sport. Safely landed at some “friendly cottage, where the landlady is good, and the daughter innocent and beautiful: where the room is cleanly, with lavender in the sheets, and twenty ballads stuck about the wall; there he can enjoy the company of a talkative brother sportsman, have his trouts dressed for his supper, tell tales, sing old tunes, or make a catch. There he can talk of the wonders of nature, with learned admiration, or find some harmless sport to content him, and pass away a little time, without offence to God, or injury to man.” Mr. Salter’s Letters are worthy of re-publication. |