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David Powel (1549x52 – 1598) was a Welsh
Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
 Church of England
Church of England

The Church of England is the State religion Christianity Ecclesia in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches....
 clergyman and historian who published the first printed history of Wales in 1584.

l was born in Denbighshire
Denbighshire

Denbighshire is a principal area and county in North Wales. It is named after the Denbighshire , but has substantially different borders. Denbighshire has the distinction of being the oldest inhabited part of Wales....
 and commenced his studies at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford

The University of Oxford , located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation in the English-speaking world....
 when he was 16, sometime between 1566 and 1568. Whilst his initial college membership is not known, it is known that he moved to Jesus College
Jesus College, Oxford

Jesus College is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had a financial endowment of ?119m....
 when it was founded in 1571. He obtained his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin language Artium Baccalaureus, is an Undergraduate education bachelor's degree awarded for either a course or a program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
 degree on 3 March 1573 and is thought to have been the college's first graduate.






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David Powel (1549x52 – 1598) was a Welsh
Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
 Church of England
Church of England

The Church of England is the State religion Christianity Ecclesia in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches....
 clergyman and historian who published the first printed history of Wales in 1584.

Life

Powel was born in Denbighshire
Denbighshire

Denbighshire is a principal area and county in North Wales. It is named after the Denbighshire , but has substantially different borders. Denbighshire has the distinction of being the oldest inhabited part of Wales....
 and commenced his studies at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford

The University of Oxford , located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation in the English-speaking world....
 when he was 16, sometime between 1566 and 1568. Whilst his initial college membership is not known, it is known that he moved to Jesus College
Jesus College, Oxford

Jesus College is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had a financial endowment of ?119m....
 when it was founded in 1571. He obtained his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin language Artium Baccalaureus, is an Undergraduate education bachelor's degree awarded for either a course or a program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
 degree on 3 March 1573 and is thought to have been the college's first graduate. He obtained his M.A. on 6 July 1576. Before Powel graduated, he had been named as vicar
Vicar

In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, anyone acting "in the person of" or wiktionary:agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant, literally the "place-holder"....
 of Ruabon
Ruabon

Ruabon is a village and Community in the county borough of Wrexham in Wales....
, Denbighshire and rector
Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings, but all of them indicate an academic, religious or political administrator.The word "rector" also appears in many modern languages, such as Albanian, Dutch language, Spanish language, Catalan language and Romanian language....
 of Llanfyllin
Llanfyllin

Llanfyllin is a small town in Powys, Mid Wales, United Kingdom....
, Montgomeryshire
Montgomeryshire

Montgomeryshire, also known as Maldwyn is one of thirteen historic counties of Wales and a former administrative county of Wales. It is named after one of William the Conqueror's main counsellors, Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, who was the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury....
. He became vicar of Meifod
Meifod

Meifod is a small village 7 miles north-west of Welshpool in Powys, mid Wales, on the A495 road and located in the valley of the River Vyrnwy. The River Banwy has a confluence with the Vyrnwy approximately two miles to the west of the village....
 in place of his Llanfyllin position in 1579, and was also the holder of two prebends at St Asaph Cathedral
St Asaph Cathedral

St Asaph Cathedral, at St Asaph, Denbighshire, north Wales, is sometimes claimed to be the smallest Anglican cathedral in Great Britain....
. After further study, he obtained degrees of B.Th.
Bachelor of Theology

The Bachelor of Theology is a three to five year undergraduate degree in Theology disciplines. Candidates for this degree typically must complete course work in Greek language or Hebrew language, as well as systematic theology, biblical theology, ethics, homiletics and Christian ministry....
 on 19 February 1583 and D.Th.
Doctor of Theology

Doctor of Theology is a terminal academic degree in theology. It is a research degree, involving the publication of an original contribution to scholarship in the form of a dissertation, that is for most purposes the equivalent of a Doctor of Philosophy in Theology or a similar discipline....
 on 11 April 1583. He was then private chaplain to Sir Henry Sidney
Henry Sidney

Sir Henry Sidney , lord deputy of Ireland, was the eldest son of Sir William Sidney of Penshurst, a prominent politician and courtier during the reigns of Henry VIII of England and Edward VI of England, from both of whom he received extensive grants of land, including the manor of Penshurst in Kent, which became the principal residence of th...
, president of the Council in the marches of Wales, from about 1584 to 1586. He died in 1598 in Ruabon, where he was buried.

Works

Powel made a significant contribution to developing and preserving Welsh culture and to the growth of Protestantism
Protestantism

Protestantism is a movement within Christianity that originated in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. It is considered to be one of the three principal traditions of Christianity, together with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy....
 in Wales. He was a supporter of William Morgan
William Morgan (Bible translator)

William Morgan , was Bishop of Llandaff and Bishop of St Asaph, and the translator of the first version of the whole Bible into Welsh language from Greek and Hebrew....
's efforts to translate the Bible into Welsh
Welsh Bible

Parts of the Bible were translated into Welsh language before the 15th century, but the first complete translation was the manuscript of Celydd Sfan, and while no exact date for its composition is known, it was in existence by 1470....
. He kept the Privy Council
Privy council

A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation on how to exercise their Executive , typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchy....
 informed about illegal books circulating amongst Roman Catholics in Wales.

He was a respected scholar and was associated with geographers such as John Dee
John Dee (mathematician)

John Dee was a noted England mathematics, astronomy, astrology, geography, Occultism, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I of England. He also devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination, and Hermeticism....
 and Richard Hakluyt
Richard Hakluyt

Richard Hakluyt was an English writer. He is principally remembered for his efforts in promoting and supporting the settlement of North America by the English people through his works, notably Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America and The Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation ....
. In 1573, Powel took over the task of preparing for publication an English translation (by Humphrey Llwyd) of some medieval Welsh chronicles, upon which John Dee had been working before leaving England. Powel expanded Llwyd's work in its scope and detail, with the help of Lord Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , Knight_of_the_Garter was an England statesman, the chief advisor and good friend of Elizabeth I of England for most of her reign , twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572....
 providing access to some further documents, making his own contributions clear by typographical distinctions. The resulting publication in 1584, The Historie of Cambria, now called Wales, was the first printed history of Wales. The work remained an important source for medieval Welsh history for several centuries thereafter. It also popularised the legend that Prince Madoc had discovered America in about 1170, a tale used to justify English encroachments on the territory of Spanish America (for example in Hakluyt's Discourse on Western Planting).

Powel also published a volume with editions of Ponticus Virunnius's Historia Britannica, and Gerald of Wales's Itinerarium Cambriae ('Journey through Wales', 1191) and Descriptio Cambriae ('Description of Wales', 1194), but omitted Gerald's negative comments about the Welsh. The volume was dedicated to Sidney. He is also said (by the later lexicographer John Davies
John Davies (Mallwyd)

Dr John Davies, Mallwyd was one of Wales's leading scholars of the late Renaissance. He wrote a Welsh language grammar and dictionary. He was also a translator and editor and an ordained minister of the Church of England....
) to have worked on an unpublished Welsh dictionary.