Blessed William Davies

William Davies (died 27 July 1593) was a recusant Welsh Roman Catholic missionary who worked as an underground schoolmaster in the Creuddyn Peninsula of North Wales. Davies was martyred at Beaumaris Castle in Anglesey during the Elizabethan era, as part of the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Wales that began under Henry VIII and ended only with Catholic Emancipation in 1829. Davies was beatified by Pope John Paul II as one of the Eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales in 1987. Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic Church in Beaumaris contains a large fibreglass relief at the west end of its nave depicting Davies' Martyrdom. He is credited with involvement in the underground publication of Y Drych Cristianogawl and with composing at least one devotional work of Welsh bardic poetry during his imprisonment. His former student William Robins later alleged that Davies was born into the Welsh nobility. A 1596 legal document named his father as Syr William Dai and further names Davies' paternal grandfather as the famous Welsh harpist Dafydd Nantglyn, who won the silver harp for his performance at the 1523 Eisteddfod in Caerwys. The Exchequer Rolls, however, contradicts Robbins by describing Syr William Dai as neither a gentleman nor a yeoman. Although Syr William was not a Catholic, the names of Davies' mother, Katherina Jevans, and his sister, Elena Davies, appear in the 1587-1588 Recusant Rolls for the parish of Llandrillo-yn-Ros. Davies was born in North Wales, probably Croes yn Eirias, Denbighshire, but his date of birth is not known, however one source gives the year 1555. Groes yn Eirias is the old name for the area of dwellings between Llanelian and Colwyn Bay, Groes Road Colwyn Bay is a route to Llanelian Church. Eirias Park is in the same area. (It is now in Conwy County Borough.) He arrived at Douai on 6 April 1582 just in time to assist at the first Mass of Nicholas Garlick.