Goronwy Owen (1 January 1723 – July 1769) was an Anglican clergyman and one of the 18th century's most notable and influential figures in Welsh-language literature.
In reaction to centuries of incomprehensible Welsh poetry in strict metre, however, Owen's verse was held up by the Gwyneddigion Society as a model for future poets during the late 18th-century revival of the Eisteddfod tradition.
As a young man, he left Anglesey for the last time, wandering to Denbighshire; to Oswestry where he was made a master at Oswestry School and curate of nearby Selattyn in 1746;[5] he was master of the grammar school at Donnington and curate of nearby Uppington close to Shrewsbury from 1748 to 1753;[5] he then moved to Walton, Liverpool and then to Northolt, Middlesex.
In November 1757, he emigrated, together with his young family, to take a post at the College of William & Mary, at Williamsburg, in the Colony of Virginia.
He resigned from the college and on 25 August 1760 applied to become Vicar of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, at Lawrenceville, Brunswick County, Virginia, to which he was appointed a year later and where he remained for the rest of his life.
Owen had often expressed the desire to compose an epic work of Christian poetry which would be the equal of John Milton's Paradise Lost.
[12] The town of Benllech in Anglesey named its village hall and its primary school, Ysgol Goronwy Owen, in his honour.