- William Jones, Dol Hywel , Llangadfan
- Ganwyd 1726 – Bu farw Tachwedd 30ain 1795
- Born 1726 – Died November 30th 1795
- The William Jones’ letters were originally written
"probably 1790 or thereabout" addressed to Edward Jones -
Bardd y Brenin, (1752- 1824) who lived in London and collected and
published Welsh or ‘British’ material as it was then
called. William Jones, in one of his letters, mentioned the dances writing:
- "The dances formerly in this Country were
by parties of six, longways and round about 40 years ago they
extended no more than 4 or 5 parish & about 15 years ago they
were wholly laid aside it begins to revive a little at present, but
as it requires some skill & application to learn it handsomely
and the experienced practisers are either dead or superannuated it
will be entirely lost to the next generation. If you are not
acquainted with their manner – please to let me know & I
will send you a few tunes - - they must be a curiosity to such as
ever(?) saw them".
- Edward Jones was obviously interested for a subsequent letter
contains the full particulars of the dances and tunes for which
William Jones hoped he would be paid. In this case, Edward Jones did
not use the dances and the lines scored through the manuscript may
have been made by Edward Jones in rejecting the manuscript. Edward
Jones did use a lot of material that William Jones collected
especially in his two editions of the "Musical and Poetical
Relicks of the Welsh Bards", the second edition of 1794 being
twice the size of the first edition. Just how much material William
Jones contributed to this is not known, but it was probably considerable.
- William Jones was described by Gwallter Mechain as "in
spite of situation poverty and want of education, arose triumphant
over every obstacle, and secured to himself the celebrity of being a
scholar, a poet and philosopher" and "he ranked
among the profoundest critics that Wales has ever produced"
and was an "eccentric, but in many ways, learned antiquary",
mainly self-educated and knew Latin very well. He was a musician who
could read and write music and could play fiddle "with
considerable skill". He was also a quack in the 18th century
sense of the word, that is, a self-taught herbalist or country
doctor, until government legislation prevented quacks from practising
legally, which naturally did not endear him to authority.
- He was a radical even a revolutionary. He strongly believed in
the principles of the French Revolution and promoted and campaigned
for the "civil rights for his down-trodden fellow Welshmen".
Dr Geraint H. Jenkins (UCW Aberystwyth) describes him as a
"Welsh Voltaire" in much detail in his Lecture to the
Llanrwst Eisteddfod 1989 "Y Chwyldro Ffrengig a Voltaire
Cymru" ("The French Revolution and the Welsh
Voltaire"). Eddie Jones and the Welsh Folk Dance Society have
recently published (1997) a bilingual study called "William
Jones Llangadfan". Besides the history of William Jones, it also
describes the conditions and utter poverty of rural Wales in the late
eighteenth century. Both booklets are well worth studying as they
leave a deep and dark impression of the period with its attendant
politics, revolutionary feelings, poverty and injustices.
- William Jones toured the borders of Mid and North Wales
searching, reading and copying manuscripts from the private libraries
of the mansions and grand houses of the area. He certainly would have
come across copies of the numerous Playford’s Dancing Masters as
well as other collections of dances, folk songs and tunes. These and
other items of interest he would copy and despatch to Edward Jones in London.
- William Jones also wrote Plygain carols and it is interesting
that there are carols called Ffarwel Ned Puw and Y Fedle Fawr in
Geraint Vaughan-Jones "Mwy o Garolau Plygain" published by
Lolfa. Such was the tradition of Plygain carols that they would call
carols after the name of the family or farm who wrote or sang the
carol, eg Betty Brown, Carol Wil Cae Coch and would sometimes guard
it jealously and try to keep it from others. More often than not,
traditional folk tunes and their names would be used. Two very
distinct traditions that pertain to the same small area of Maldwyn
(Montergomeryshire) that overlap.
- Whether William Jones actually danced the Llangadfan dances is
uncertain, possibly unlikely as he professes to "never been a
Proficient in the Art". However Dr Geraint Jenkins
description as being a bit of a lad who enjoyed life, he certainly
would have been involved in the convivial side of life at the Cann
Office and other establishments which involved music and dancing. The
dances he probably would have seen or been involved with at that time
in the eighteenth century would probably have been longways dancing
for as many as will. The first letter does mention that " it begins
to revive a little at present". Was William Jones involved
in its revival? Where did he get the details of the dances? Were they
obtained from one of the "superannuated"? Hugh Mellor
surmises that "they were written out by a friend of William
Jones who knew all about the dancing". The manuscript however is
in William Jones’ handwriting and he must have transcribed the
dances, possibly explaining the odd error that has crept in.
- Did William Jones write further letters to Edward Jones on Welsh
dances? We know that Edward Jones library and papers were sold by
auction in London after his death in 1824. There has also been
mention of Edward Jones’ house having a fire or even being burnt
down. Hopefully, somewhere, there is a pile of old, forgotten papers
in some private library which may contain the answers to the
tantalising paragraph on the last page of William Jones’ letter :
- "They formerly here had Dances to Ffarwel Ned Puw, Y
Fedle Fawr, Neithiwr ac Echnos, Crimson Velvet & such like, but
these were left off before my Time. However Morfa Rhuddlan is a very
pleasant Dance if all the party perform their parts well,".
- Even more tantalising, what was the Morfa Rhuddlan referred to in
this paragraph??
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