PHYLIP, SION (1543–1620), Welsh poet, was the son of Phylip ap Morgan, and was born in 1543 in the neighbourhood of Harlech. His bardic instructors were Gruffydd Hiraethog and Wiliam Lleyn. He was present at the eisteddfod held at Caerwys in 1568, and was there admitted to the grade of ‘disgybl pencerddaidd’ (scholar of the first rank) (Pennant, Tours, ii. 93). He lived at Hendre Waelod, in the vale of Ardudwy, but spent much of his time in bardic tours through various parts of Wales. In the course of one of these (1620) he was drowned near Pwllheli. Three of Sion Phylip's poems have been printed in the ‘Cymmrodor’ (ix. 24, 28, 33), and five in the ‘Brython’ (iv. 230, 298, 345, 346, 390). Many are to be found in the Cymrodorion MSS., now in the British Museum. His brother Richard and his sons Gruffydd and Phylip were also poets.
[Lewis Dwnn, ii. 221, 222, 225; Brython, 1861, iv. 142–4; Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymreig, by Gweirydd ap Rhys; Williams's Eminent Welshmen; Foulkes's Enwogion Cymru.]
PHYLIP, WILLIAM (1590?–1670), Welsh poet, was the son of Phylip Sion ap Tomas (d. 1625), and was born about 1590. In 1649, on the death of Charles I, he wrote a Welsh elegy upon the king, which was printed in the same year. Under the Commonwealth his property at Hendre Fechan, near Barmouth, was confiscated, and he himself was forced to go into hiding. After an interval he made his peace with the authorities, who are said to have sought to curb his spirit by making him a collector of their taxes. He died at a great age on 11 Feb. 1669–70, and was buried in Llanddwywe churchyard, where his tombstone is still inscribed ‘W. PH. 1669, FE. XI.’ Three of his ‘cywyddau’ have appeared in the ‘Brython’ (iv. 147, 185, 285), and five other poems in the ‘Blodeugerdd’ of 1759 (pp. 8, 125, 227, 390, 413).
[Rowlands's Cambrian Bibliography, 1869; preface to Eos Ceiriog, 1823.]
PICKEN, ANDREW (1788–1833), Scottish author, grandson of James Picken, a clothier of Paisley, was born there in 1788. After leaving school he was a clerk, successively, in a manufactory in Causeyside Street, Paisley, in a Dublin brewery, and in a dye-work at Pollokshaws, Glasgow. Then he was for a time a representative of a Glasgow mercantile firm in the West Indies. On returning to Scotland he married Janet Coxon, daughter of an Edinburgh bookseller, and, after attempting literary work in Glasgow, settled in Liverpool as a bookseller. Disappointed in this venture, he went to London, where he speedily became popular as a man of letters, associating with Godwin, Wentworth Dilke, Barry Cornwall, and others, and regularly attending the literary conversaziones of the painters Pickersgill and John Martin. The constant strain of authorship gradually told upon his health, and his last work, devoted to the histories of old families, seemed specially to exhaust him. He died of apoplexy on 23 Nov. 1833.
In 1824 Picken, as ‘Christopher Keelivine,’ published in one volume ‘Tales and Sketches of the West of Scotland,’ some satiric hits in which are believed to have contributed to his departure from Glasgow. ‘Mary Ogilvie,’ one of the stories in the volume, went through several editions, of which the sixth (London, 8vo [1840]) was illustrated by R. Cruikshank. In 1829 Picken's ‘Sectarian,’ a novel in three volumes, powerfully depicted a mind ruined by religious fanaticism, and roused a certain prejudice against the writer (Athenæum, 30 Nov. 1833). ‘The Dominie's Legacy,’ 1830, is another novel in three volumes, drawing largely on the author's knowledge of Paisley characters and his own experience. This work fairly established Picken's popularity. His ‘Travels and Researches of Eminent English Missionaries,’ 1 vol., 1831, speedily ran through two large editions. In the same year he edited, in three volumes, ‘The Club Book,’ containing tales and sketches by G. P. R. James, Galt, Tyrone Power, Jerdan, Hogg, Allan Cunningham, D. M. Moir (Delta), Leitch Ritchie, and himself. Two of his own contributions—‘The Three Kearneys,’ a vigorous Irish story, and ‘The Deerstalker’—were instantly popular, the latter being dramatised and successfully played at the Queen's Theatre, London. In 1832, taking advantage of the current emigration craze, Picken published ‘The Canadas,’ for which John Galt supplied materials. ‘Waltham,’ a novel, was followed in 1833 by ‘Traditionary Stories of Old Families and Legendary Illustrations of Family History,’ with historical and biographical notes, in two volumes, which cover much ground, without nearly exhausting the author's scheme. ‘The Black Watch,’ a posthumous three-volume novel, in which the battle of Fontenoy forms an incident, Picken himself considered his best work. He left a manuscript ‘Life of John Wesley’ and miscellaneous notes entitled ‘Experience of Life,’ which have not been published. Where Picken is strongest is in his delineation of Paisley life and character, and the books thus charged with his own knowledge and opinions continue to be readable.
