Roger Edwards

D.D. A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ran ...

(1811 – 9 July 1886) was a Welsh

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

ic Methodist, who later became prominent in Wales as a press editor and publisher.

Early life

Edwards was born in 1811, the year in which the Calvinistic Methodists first assumed the power to ordain their own ministers; and he grew up in

Dolgellau Dolgellau () is a town and community in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, lying on the River Wnion, a tributary of the River Mawddach. It was the traditional county town of the historic county of Merionethshire ( cy, Meirionnydd, Sir Feirionnydd) ...

amid the controversy over

Calvin Calvin may refer to: Names * Calvin (given name) ** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States * Calvin (surname) ** Particularly John Calvin, theologian Places In the United States * Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet * Calvin T ...

's five great points. Ebenezer Morris,

John Elias John Elias was a Christian preacher in Wales in the first half of the 19th century, as part of the Welsh Methodist revival. His preaching was noted as being exceptionally powerful, "as if talking fire down from heaven". On one occasion it is sa ...

, etc., were then leading lights in the denomination. In 1835 he became editor of ''Cronicl yr Oes'', perhaps the first Welsh political paper. This he conducted for four years, writing most of it himself. The leaders in the ''Chronicle'' for 1836 on the "House of Lords", "The Ballot" and "Church Rates" were strongly radical, and they brought on young Edwards the charge of socialism and sympathy with Tom Paine.

Editing and publishing

From 1839 to 1874 Edwards was secretary of the Calvinistic Methodist Association. In January 1845 there appeared the first number of the ''Traethodydd'', of which he was co-editor with his namesake

Lewis Edwards Lewis Edwards (27 October 1809 – 19 July 1887) was a Welsh educator and Nonconformist minister. Life He was born in Pen-llwyn, Ceredigion, Wales, the eldest son of Lewis and Margaret Edward. He was educated at Aberystwyth and at Llangei ...

until 1855, and after that with another until his death in 1886. He was editor of the ''Drysorfa'' (a magazine founded in 1779 by Thomas Charles of Bala from 1846 to 1886. Besides this he published two volumes of the ''Preacher'', a hymn book called the ''Welsh Psalmist'', ''Methodist Diary'', James Hughes's ''Expositor'', with additional notes, and three volumes of sermons by Henru Rees of Liverpool. Edwards was the first to publish a serial story in Welsh; of these he wrote three.

Influence

Although his own literary efforts are largely forgotten today, he was a key early influence on the novelist

Daniel Owen Daniel Owen (20 October 1836 – 22 October 1895) was a Welsh novelist. He is generally regarded as the foremost Welsh-language novelist of the 19th century, and as the first significant novelist to write in Welsh. Early life Daniel Owen was bor ...

, serving as a kind of mentor to the fatherless Owen and encouraging him to take up writing when illness had forced Owen to give up preaching. Owen's first two novels,

Y Dreflan Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate Letter (alphabet), letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some auth ...

and Rhys Lewis, appeared in Y Drysorfa during Edwards' editorship.Rhys, Robert. ''Daniel Owen'' Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000. p. 145

Works

*''

Y Tri Brawd a'u Teuluoedd ''Y Tri Brawd a'u Teuluoedd'' is a Welsh novel written in 1866 by the Calvinist Roger Edwards. Background ''Y Tri Brawd a'u Teuluoedd'' was published as the first in a serial form of novels by Roger Edwards. Edwards was an ordained minister wi ...

'' (1866)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Roger 1811 births 1886 deaths 19th-century Welsh clergy Welsh Calvinist and Reformed Christians 19th-century Methodists Welsh Methodists Welsh writers Welsh religious writers 19th-century Welsh writers Welsh newspaper editors Welsh-language writers 19th-century British journalists British male journalists 19th-century British male writers