Ann Harriet Hughes

Annie Harriet Hughes (1852 – 25 April 1910) was a Welsh language novelist, poet, and newspaper editor, who wrote and published three novels between 1905 and 1908, under the pen-name Gwyneth Vaughan.

Gwyneth Vaughan in "bardic" costume, 1904

Early life

Ann Harriet Hughes was born at Talsarnau in Merionethshire, the daughter of a miller, and had a basic school education at Llandecwyn. In 1876 she married John Hughes Jones, a doctor in Clwt-y-bont, Caernarvon; but later dropped the "Jones" part of her surname. Ann lived in London and later in Treherbert and Clwt-y-bont. Left to bring up four children on her husband's death in 1902, she moved to Bangor, Gwynedd, and took up writing as a career.^[1]

Career

Hughes completed three novels, and a left a fourth unfinished work. She also edited Welsh versions of three of the works of the Scottish evangelist Henry Drummond and wrote verse in Welsh. She edited the woman's page in the Welsh Weekly (1892), Yr Eryr (1894–95) Y Cymro (1906–07).^[1]

Death

Ann Harriet Hughes died on 25 April 1910 at Pwllheli, in her late fifties.^[1] She was buried in the graveyard of the Llanfihangel-y-traethau church.^[2] In 1911, her son Arthur Hughes emigrated to Patagonia.^[3]

Works

• O Gorlannau'r Defaid (1905)
• Plant y Gorthrwm (1908)
• Cysgodau y Blynyddoedd Gynt (1908)
• Troad y Rhod (unfinished; partly published in the periodical Y Brython, 1909).