Rhys, JOHN,

Rhys, JOHN, was born near Ponterwyd in Cardiganshire, June 21, 1840, served a pupil-teacher's apprenticeship, and after the course at Bangor Normal College kept a school in Anglesey down to the end of 1865, when he entered Jesus College, Oxford. He was elected to a fellow- ship at Merton in 1869, and next continued his studies at the Sorbonne, Heidelberg, Leipzig, and Göttingen, returning in 1871 to become inspector of schools for Flint and Denbigh. In 1877 he was appointed professor of Celtic in the University of Oxford, in 1881 was elected a fellow, and in 1895 principal, of Jesus College. His Lectures on Welsh Philology (1877) and Celtic Britain (1882) confirmed a reputation already gained by contributions to Kuhn's Beiträge zur vergl. Sprachforschung, the Revue Celtique, and the Archæologia Cambrensis. He gave the Hibbert Lectures on Celtic Heathendom in 1886, and at the close of 1889 the Rhind Lectures at Edinburgh. Professor Rhys is a contributor to the present work.