(Q65211)

Thomas Jones ('Taliesin o Eifion'), poet, was born in Llanystumdwy in 1820. In 1826 he and his family moved to Llangollen, where, following a period of schooling, Jones took up his father's profession of plumber and decorator. He showed an early aptitude for the measures of cynghanedd and became a prominent 'eisteddfodwr'. He submitted the winning awdl for the competition of the chair at Wrexham National Eisteddfod, 1876, but died before claiming his prize; the bardic chair was draped in black, and Thomas Jones consequently became known as 'Bardd y Gadair Ddu', the 'Poet of the Black Chair'. Jones's work 'Brwydr Crogen' is one of the earliest examples of metrical drama in the Welsh language.