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David Davies (Dai'r Cantwr) - Welsh poet and lay-preacher…
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Auction Location:
Melbourne
Date:
26-May-2019
Lot No.
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Description:
David Davies (Dai'r Cantwr) - Welsh poet and lay-preacher transported to Van Diemen's Land, 1844, A leather-bound choirmaster's notebook, each page with 4 lines of printed staves on which Davies (and perhaps another hand) have written the 3 and 4-part harmonies for hymns and other liturgical pieces performed by Welsh Men's choirs. Each piece is titled and the meter indicated and some appear to be his own compositions. The front cover bears the embossed name and date of presentation to 'David Davies 1839', additional printed papers are loosely inserted at the front and back. 11 x 21 cm., David Davies [c.1812 - 1874), also known as Dai'r Cantwr (David the Singer), was a Welsh poet and lay-preacher who was convicted and sentenced to 10 years transportation for his participation in the Rebecca (or Tollgate) Riots around 1843. Davies was arrested at the 'Plow and Harrow', a public house in Pum Heol, near Llanelli. He was placed in custody in Carmarthen Goal to await sentence., At his trial on 22 December 1843 at Carmarthen Assizes under the charge of demolishing the turnpike at Spudder's Bridge, Davies was found guilty and was sentenced to transportation for 20 years. Davies was held at Carmarthen while awaiting transportation and it was during this period that he wrote the poem now known as the 'Threnody of Dai'r Cantwr'., One of the verses of 'Threnody of Dai'r Cantwr', translated from the original Welsh, Though wounding were the wicked blows, The cruel world hath struck at me, I have a strength they cannot break, My human pride my dignity, They bound my hands with prison chains, And yet my soul they could not bind, Now far across the sundering sea, I drag my solely troubled mind, My father's home, its tender care, I know I shall not see again, I'll rot for twenty searing years, Among corrupt unfeeling men, Farewell to you a hundredfold, Fair county, sweet untroubled Wales, Still I remember in my pain, Your streams, your hills, your gentle vales, You are the garden of the world, The Eden where all beauty lies, My heart breaks as with flaming sword, They drive me now from paradise., On 5 February 1844 he was moved to the Millbank Penitentiary and remained there until 12 March when he was transported on the 'London' to Van Diemen's Land. He landed on 10 July and was sent to work on Maria Island. After completing his work on the Island, he was placed in the employment of various people, but was unable to stay out of trouble, receiving brief sentences for minor offences, such as insolence, drunkenness and using indecent language. He received his ticket of leave in April 1854, and was conditionally pardoned on 31 October of the same year. Although some claimed he returned to Wales, he seems to have remained in Tasmania, and died there in an outhouse of the Ross Hotel in August 1874, from smoke inhalation after his pipe accidentally set fire to grass, whilst Davies was asleep and intoxicated.
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Category:
Printed & Written Material: Historical Documents