John Dyer

John Dyer (1699 – December 1757) was a painter and Welsh poet who became a priest in the Church of England. He was most recognised for Grongar Hill, one of six early poems featured in a 1726 miscellany. Longer works published later include the less successful genre poems, The Ruins of Rome (1740) and The Fleece (1757). His work has always been more anthologised than published in separate editions, but his talent was later recognised by William Wordsworth among others.

John Dyer was the fourth of six children born to Robert and Catherine Cocks Dyer in Llanfynydd, Carmarthenshire, five miles from Grongar Hill. His exact birth date is unknown, but the earliest existing record of John Dyer dates his baptism on the 13th of August 1699 – within fourteen days after his birth as was the tradition of the time – in Llanfynnydd parish. His grandfather was churchwarden there and his father was a highly successful solicitor in Llanfynnydd and owned several properties in the neighborhood. Presumably for financial opportunity and greater living space for six children, the family moved in 1710 to the mansion of Aberglasney in the nearby parish of Llangathen.

Dyer was first educated in an unknown school in the countryside before attending Westminster School under Dr. Robert Friend. Dyer’s dislike for Westminster was chronicled in a 1714 entry in his Journal of Escapes: “Ran from school and my father, on a box of the ear being given me strolled for three or four days – found at Windsor.” He retained little of what he learned, as evidenced later by his unfamiliarity with the Latin authors that were a school staple.

After Westminster School, Dyer worked in his father’s office, learning the business. His talent in the field of law was evidenced by the lawsuits in which he was involved and he was the only one of four sons to have managed his property well. John’s father, who wanted his son to pursue a career as solicitor, subdued the poet’s longing to channel his creativity through painting and writing. Ralph M. Williams comments that it was upon his return to Aberglasney “that we first begin to know something of his personality and see for the first time the conflict in him between the dreamy romantic and the practical man of business that runs through his life.” Having grown up among the ancient stoneworks in the Aberglasney grounds, it was not surprising that Dyer had developed an interest in antiquities and the love of nature that characterises his work.

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