Denbighshire Free Press

REMARKABLE MEN OF LLANSANNAN. TUDUR ALED. This bard was a Llan- i sannaa man. He lived at Dyffryn Aled, in the county of Denbigh, and nourished in or about the year A.D. 1490. His residence was supposed to have been at the old Dyfiryn Aled, the opposite side the river to the present house. He published several pieces of poetry, many of which are extant in the present day, and may be seen in Gorchestion Bardd Cymry," published by Rhys Jones, Esq., of Liaufachreth, Swydd Feirion (Merionethshire), 1773. WILLIAM SALCSBURY, of Cae-du, town- ship of Penaled, parish of Llansannan, county of Denbigh. His name is spelt in many ways. Salisbury and Salsbri, the Welsh way of pronouncing the word. He himself signs his name in his address to Queen Elizabeth, and in his Epistle to all the Welch," Salesbury. This family •1 L 1 1 ff XT ..J_£. 18 saiu io aaye oeeu or LN ORMILU uesucu", and to have cume over with the Conqueror. We find one John Salisbury in the Vale of Clwyd as early as 1089. This is said to have been the father of Syr Harry Ddu, a name well known to the old Harpers or N. Wales. Mr Pennant says that one Adam de Salusbury was settled (sic) by Henry 2nd in Lleweni, but Mr Walter Davies differs from Pennant and says that the Salisburies were not iu possession of Lleweni till a much later period but at whatever time they came to Lleweni, they were net long in becoming very influential, for by alliances and marriages with Welsh families and Welsh heiresses we find them in possession of mansions and estates in the counties of Denbigh, Flint and Merionethshire, and we find. tham in Bachymbyd, Rug—Baehgraig-ystoo, Lla- proc-IJlanrhaiadr-Llewesog, Clocaenog Llan fwrog, Maescadarn, 'rwytherin—- Dolbelsdr—Liandyraog. It is very difficult to arrive at any con- clusive evidence of the youth or education of William Salisbury. The pedigree of William Salisbury, fron., "Haiieq Teulu Gwydr," by Syr John Wynne, may be interesting to Llansannan people. I first translator of the New Testament into the ancient British language. This act of William Salisbury has immortalized his name among the people of Wales, and lent a kind of interest to every place connected. with his iife. He is supposed to have been, born at Plasisa, near Llanrwst, the same family having extended themselves into this part of Wales. Of the early part of his education nothing is known. It i certain that he went to the university of Oxford, but of what college he was a member during his residence in the aniver- eity is unknown. He removed from Oxford to London for the purpose of studying the law. He was some time at Thaive's Inn," and afterwards, it is said, at "Lincoln's Inn," If he composed the preface to his Rhetoric, he knew nine languages, besides Welsh and English, viz., Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabian, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish. We can gather that he was staying with Bishop Davies while he translated the New Testament, and after that in London while Henry Denham was printing ic but the favourite tradition is that he resided the most part of his life on his estate, in the parish of Llansannan, at Caedu. It is not fully ascertained as to the time of his death. Thomas Fuller says that he died about the year 1570, but this is wrong, as he did not publish hie New Testament till the year 1567. As regards his publications we are not left so much in the dark as we are about the early and latter periods of his life. He published first a sort of almanack, which, as Bishop Davies of Bangor, and after- wards of Hereford, says, was the first Welsh almanack ever published. Quarto, London, 1546. 2. An English and Welsh dictionary, dedicated by permission to King Henry VIII, Imprynted at London by me, John Waley, 1547," Cum privilegio ad imprimendum Johim." The remarks upon the dictionary are the only account of Salesbury we have from the pen of Thomas Fuller.-SeeFuller's worthies. 3. The fall of the High Altar of the Pope. Octavo, London, 1550. 4 An easy and plain introduefion to, the Welsh language. Quarto, London, 155). A second edition corrected and published in the year 15o7. 5. The Episties and Gospels for every Sunday and Holiday throughout the year. 1551. Quarto, London. 7. But his greatest work of all wss his translation of the New Testament into Welsh from the Grade. In the year 156a it was ordered^ by Parliament that the two Testaments be translated into Welsh, under the super i vision of five Bishops, viz., Bangor, St Asaph, St David's, Llandaff, and Here. ford, and that the said translation be, ready for the Churches by St David s Day,, 1566, under a penalty of ze40 upon each Bishop unless the work was completed. But, notwithstandiuj the Act of Parha- liament and the fine, the work was not finished by the time specified. William Salesbnry took the work in hand, which he completed very soon after the time specified by the Senate, and his New Testament was printed in London in Welsh in the year 1567. (Fifty years before this tit-ao-Luttier published his lhesis in Wittenburg). William Salisbury was as- sisted in this work by Dr Richard Davies, Bishop of St David's, and T Huet. William Salisbury translated St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke, St John, The Acts of the Apostles, The Epistle of St Paul to the Romans, 1st Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippiau*. Colossianc, isr Thessalonians, 2nd Thessaioniana, 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon, 1st, Epistle t Jolin, 2nd St John, and Jude. l Dr Richard Davies translated: 1st Timothv. Hebrews, K pis tie of St James, 1st Peter, and 2nd Peter. T Huet translated the Revelations. The Welsh Testament, although he had some assistance in translating it, was called Salesbury's Testament, as he trans- lated by far the greater portion of it. The Bible did not appear in the Welsh language for 21 years after the Testament was published. This Bible, called Bishop Morgan's Bible, came out in 1588, black letter, folio. The New Testament was only corrected by Bishop Morgan from the translation of William Salesbury, The house where William Salesbury lived in Llansannan was standing till within a very few years. There was in this house a chimney, high up in which was a small chamber built, as it were, for a place of retreat or concealment, and there is a vulgar tradition that it was in this small chamber Salesbury translated his Testament, but that is refuted by its being known that he was staying with Bishop Davies at that time however, his staying in 1551 translated the Epistles and Gospels for every Sunday and Holi- day in the year, and his Protestant prin- ciples being known, would be quite sufficient, one would suppose, to mark him out as an object of persecution during Mary's reign, and would, probably, render his residence in London anything but safe, while the fierce martyr fires of Smithfield were being supplied with victims during the Marian persecution. As for want of better information, it may not be altogether wise to cast off popular oral tradition, and in- stead of saying that Salisbury translated his Testament in the secret chamber be- hind the chimney in Oaedu during the Mariah persecution, we may, without trenching upon fiction, suppose that during Mary's reign, from 1553 to 1558, Salisbury came and lived in retirement upon his estate at Caedu, and that he did actually erect the curious building above mentioned as a place of cone;*lment in case a search was made for a man who was ti¿tlJ doing all he could to give the Scriptures to the people in the vulgar tongue. London, of course, would be no safe place for a man of Salisbury's principles while such deter- mined opposers to Protestantism as Gardner and Bonner were in power. Llansannan, in those days, was far more distant from the metropolis than at present, and there is every probability that the little chamber at Caedu, in the retired valley of the Aled, and during those troublesome times, was a resting place from the storm, for William Salisbury, the scholar and the patriot, who first gave the Gospel of Salvation to the Welsh people in their native l"rtL' n ie that a maa like Salis- bury, who should have been noticed by I bishops and other learned men of his age, and of whom honourable mention was made by Fuller—see Fuller's Worthies— should have so little known about him in his own country, and the more especially as the Salisbury's were a most powerful and influential family in North Wales, some branches of whom continue even up to the present time. These circumstances, one would suppose, would have been sufficient to have kept up an accurate history of so great a man. If there was any account of his life ever written, it would mc, t probably have been at Lleweni, but, while Cromwell's army were besieging the town of Denbigh, they had possession of all the country round, and as they des- troyed many documents, books and valuable registers, so they extinguished information wnich will never be brought tú light again.