Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Edwards, John (1747-1792)
EDWARDS, JOHN (Sion Ceiriog) (1747–1792), Welsh poet, was born at Crogen Wladys in Glyn Ceiriog in 1747. He, Owen Jones (Myfyr), and Robert Hughes (Robin Ddu o Fon), were the founders of Cymdeithas y Gwyneddigion, or the Venedotian Society, 1770. Sion Ceiriog, as he was called, wrote an audi (ode) for the meeting of the society on St. David's day, 1778; he was its secretary in 1779–80, and its president in 1783. He died suddenly in 1792, aged 45, John Jones, Glan-y-Gors, contributed some memorial verses to the 'Geirgrawn' of June 1796, with these prefatory remarks: 'To the memory of John Edwards, Glynceiriog, in the parish of Llangollen, Denbighshire, who was generally known as Sion Ceiriog, a poet, an orator, and an astronomer, a curious historian of sea and land, a manipulator of musical instruments, a true lover of his country and of his Welsh mother tongue, who, to the great regret of his friends, died and was buried in London, September 1792.'
[Foulkoe's Geirlyfr Bywgraffladol, 1870.]