David Williams (12 July 1809 – 28 February 1863), known by his bardic name Alaw Goch, was a prominent coal-owner in the Aberdare valley and also a keen supporter of Welsh culture and the eisteddfod.
[1] When he was around twelve years old he moved to Aberdare with his parents and after working as a sawyer, his father's trade, at the ironworks at Abernant, he became involved in coal-mining and appears to have been one of a small group of miners who struck upon a rich vein of coal at Ynysgynon.
[1] In 1861, Williams was the leading figure in arranging a National Eisteddfod at Aberdare, an important milestone in its development as an all-Wales festival.
[6] His comments at this meeting, however, reveal the limits to the radicalism of Alaw Goch, in that he was fiercely critical of the Chartists and considered those attempts to establish trade unions in the valley as being the work of outsiders from England.
The shops were-closed, St. Elvan's bell tolled solemnly, and a gloomy feeling seemed to pervade the masses of people who loitered in the streets, anticipating with melancholy eagerness the arrival of the remains of the departed bard and patriot.