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Found this:
Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume II
Name: Goronwy Owen
born in Anglesea, North Wales, January 13, 1722, son of Owen Gronow, a man of some poetic taste. He was attending school near his home, when he was met by the celebrated Lewis Morris, who sent him to Beaumaris, where he proved a most zealous scholar. Later, after the death of his mother, he became one of the masters of a grammar school in Caernarvonshire. Soon afterward, Mr. Morris sent him to Jesus College, Oxford, where he made rapid progress in Greek and Latin, and gave evidence of poetical talent in Welsh to such a degree that he was even then regarded as a rising poet, but the attempt to obtain funds enough for their publication had failed. He was ordained a deacon in the Church of England, and for a few years was a curate and school teacher. In 1757 he was offered by the Bishop of London, through the influence, it is supposed, of the Earl of Powis, the place of master of the grammar school of the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg, Virginia. The salary of £200 sterling was a tempting consideration to a half-starved genius, and, with his wife and three children, he took ship for America. As shown by the faculty minutes, Owen qualified as master of the grammar school, April 7, 1758. Of his life at the college, little is known, save that he married Mrs. Clayton, a sister of Thomas Dawson, then president of William and Mary, and that she was his second wife. After two years' service, he resigned; it is said that his "merry habits" necessitated his resignation. He was soon afterward nominated by Governor Francis Fauquier minister of St. Andrew's Parish, in Brunswick county, where he died, and was buried there in 1776. As to his scholarship, Dr. Porteus, Bishop of London, spoke of him as "the most finished writer of Latin since the days of the Roman emperors." His qualifications as a preacher were indifferent. Of his poetic talent, his biographer and countrymen speak in unbounded praise. His ode on "The Last Day of Judgment" (Cywydd Farn Fawr) is said to be unsurpassed by any poem in any language. Editions of his works were published in 1763, in 1817, in 1860, and in 1876. In 1831 his countrymen erected a beautiful tablet to his memory in the Cathedral Church, Bangor, Wales. He left issue, which are numerously represented in the South in the present day. A grandson, William B. Owen, of Nashville, Tennessee, was a colonel in the Mexican war. Another grandson, George W. Owen, of Mobile, Alabama, occupied a seat in congress for several consecutive terms. A great-grandson, Richard B. Owen, also of Mobile, Alabama, was a distinguished lawyer, and served with gallantry in the Confederate army.
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