Tomos Prys

Who was Tomos Prys?

Tomos Prys was a Welsh soldier, sailor and poet.

He was the eldest son of Ellis Price, MP of Plas Iolyn, Denbighshire.

He fought in the disastrous campaign in the Netherlands at the end of the 16th century under Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and was also with the earl at Tilbury in the army that protected London from the Spanish Armada in 1588. He was also occupied as a buccaneer; at the end of the 16th century he bought a ship and went buccaneering on the Spanish coast. In 1599 he was appointed High Sheriff of Denbighshire.

He was twice married:firstly to Margaret, the daughter of William Griffith of Caernarvon, with whom he had 3 children and secondly Jane, the daughter of Hugh Gwynn of Berth-ddu and Bodysgallen, with whom he had ten children. On his death he was buried at Ysbyty Ifan on 23 August 1634.

Many details survive about Tomos’s life are recorded in his poems, of which more than two hundred are extant. Many of these poems describe Tomos's adventures as a soldier who faced the Spanish armada and fought in the French Wars of Religion.

A poem written by Tomos at Plas Iolyn in his later life:

Traetha fy mod, lle nodant

I'm plwy gyda'm gwraig a'm plant