Morgan Rhys

Morgan Rhys (1 April 1716 – 9 August 1779)[1] was a Welsh hymn-writer.

Rhys was born in Cilycwm as one of six or seven children of Rhys and Anne Lewis.[1][2]

At first one of Griffith Jones's travelling schoolmasters, he afterwards kept school on his own account at Capel Isaac, near Llandeilo, living in a cottage on Cwm Gwenywdy farm, in the parish of Llan Fynydd. He early joined the Calvinistic Methodists, and was a member and preacher of the Cilycwm Society.

He first appeared as a hymn-writer in 1760, when twenty-two hymns from his pen were published at Carmarthen. In 1764 a second edition of this collection appeared, under the title Golwg o ben Nebo (A Prospect from the Summit of Nebo); in 1773 a third followed, and in 1775 a fourth, all at Carmarthen. Further editions were published in 1808 (Carmarthen), 1831 (Merthyr), and 1841 (Aberystwyth). In 1767 another collection, entitled Golwg ar ddull y byd hwn yn myned heibio (A Prospect of how the fashion of this world passeth away), was printed at Carmarthen, while a third, issued in 1770 or 1771 from the same press, bore the title Golwg ar y ddinas noddfa (A Prospect of the city of refuge). In 1770 Rhys published an elegy on several prominent Methodist divines (Carmarthen); Rowlands also mentions three collections of religious verse by him, which he assigns to 1774.

Rhys died in Llanfynydd, and was buried at Llan Fynydd.