William Salesbury was the chief translator of the first Welsh New Testament. He was born in about 1520 in the parish of Llansannan, Conwy. educated at Oxford University, where he studied the Hebrew, Greek and Latin. He married Catrin Llwyd and it is practically certain that he died about 1584 or shortly before that.

He wanted to provide the Welsh people with the scriptures in their own language. A law was passed directing the transition of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh. He and Richard Davies, Bishop of St David's, began to translate the scriptures.

Abergwili Museum, Carmarthen was once the palace of the Bishops of St David's (1542 - 1974), and it was here that the New Testament was translated into Welsh in 1567. Salesbury was responsible for the greater part to the work. The problem was that the version was not written for ordinary Welsh speakers and contained many words in Latin and Welsh words not usually used in everyday conversation.

William Salesbury and Bishop Davies began to translate the Old Testament into Welsh, but for some reason, disagreed about the meaning of a word. The work was discontinued and there was no Welsh vernon of the Old Testament until Bishop William Morgan published his translation of the Bible in 1588.

In 1547 Salesbury published a dictionary, this was possibly the first book to be printed in Welsh. Three years later he published a book intended to help the English to learn Welsh. One of his best known books is Oll Synwyr pen Kembero ygyd, a collection of Welsh proverbs published about 1547.

Name:- William Salesbury

Born:- 1520

Home:- Llansannon, Conwy

Educated:- Oxford

Occupation:- Translator

Died:- 1584