Image and Introduction

Research Fellow
Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS)
Tel: 01970 636543
Email: ffion.jones@cymru.ac.uk
Role in the University
- Research
- Supervision
Background
Ffion works on projects related to the eighteenth century. The most recent of these are 鈥楥urious Travellers: Thomas Pennant and Travel to Wales and Scotland 1760鈥1820鈥 (2014鈥22) and its follow-up (2023鈥5). She has transcribed and created digital editions of Thomas Pennant鈥檚 extensive and varied letters, working specifically on his Welsh correspondence and on correspondence with the print collector Richard Bull.
She is furthermore interested in Pennant鈥檚 early correspondence; his Continental correspondence and journey (1765); the process of creating British Zoology; his artists; and his reception in Welsh-speaking circles up to the beginning of the twentieth century. Elements of this work feature prominently in her monograph, Thomas Pennant (1726鈥1798): Cysylltiadau Cymreig, to be published by the University of Wales Press, 2025. For the second part of the project, her focus is on creating digital editions of Pennant鈥檚 manuscript travelogue, 1770, and of the second volume of A Tour in Wales.
Previously, Ffion worked on the 鈥業olo Morganwg and the Romantic Tradition in Wales, 1740鈥1918鈥 project, co-editing Iolo鈥檚 correspondence, The Correspondence of Iolo Morganwg, 3 vols. (Cardiff, 2007), and publishing a monograph on Iolo鈥檚 marginalia, 鈥楾he Bard is a Very Singular Character鈥: Iolo Morganwg, Marginalia and Print Culture (Cardiff, 2010).
As a member of the 鈥榃ales and the French Revolution鈥 project, she edited a volume of ballads from the period between the early years of the Revolution and the end of the Napoleonic wars, Welsh Ballads of the French Revolution 1793鈥1815 (Cardiff, 2012); several articles about the ballad genre; and an edition of an interlude by Huw Jones, Glan Conwy 鈥 a colourful Welsh take on the events of the Revolution in France.
Her interest in the popular genre of the interlude has been further served by work on texts relaying historical material dealing with the seventeenth-century British Civil Wars (see the edition of Huw Morys, Y Rhyfel Cartrefol (Bangor, 2008)) and the American and French revolutions, and chronicle material such as the history of King Lear.
In addition to this, she is interested in matters relating to literacy in the eighteenth century as suggested by the Welsh ballads and in the use of the Welsh language in the letters of the Morris brothers of Anglesey, especially in relation to the translation of Enlightenment vocabulary; and in translation between English and Welsh more generally.
As a member of a team involved in updating elements of the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, she has published a number of articles for this online resource, primarily entries on women.
Academic Interests
Teaching areas relate to Celtic religions in the Iron Age and Roman period, and perceptions of the Otherworld in medieval Welsh and Irish literature.
Modules Taught
- Celtic Otherworlds (MA module)
- Celtic Religions (BA module)
MA Supervision
Transgression, loss and grief in Medieval Welsh and Irish poetry; Otherworld figures in medieval to early modern Irish, Scottish and Welsh literature and folklore; Folklore and archaeological remains in Lancashire; Celtic Symbolism in the work of W. B. Yeats.
Research Interests
- eighteenth-century correspondence and correspondence networks, with a focus on Welsh material
- potential and use of network analysis for reading correspondence
- scientific and natural history correspondence
- representing natural history and landscape in art
- antiquarian circles in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain
- Welsh ballads and folk-plays
- translation into and from Welsh in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
- biographies of women and people of ethnic minority background in Wales
Expertise
- Welsh correspondences of the eighteenth century 鈥 Iolo Morganwg, Thomas Pennant, Morrises of Anglesey
- natural history and antiquarian circles
- Thomas Pennant鈥檚 artists, including Moses Griffith
- Welsh ballads and folk-plays, with emphasis on historical interludes
- biographies of Welsh women
Publications
- Jones, Ffion Mair, Y Chwyldro Ffrengig a鈥r Anterliwt: Hanes Bywyd a Marwolaeth Brenin a Brenhines Ffrainc gan Huw Jones, Glanconwy (Caerdydd: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 2014)
- 鈥撯撯撯撯撯撯 鈥樷
- 鈥撯撯撯撯撯撯 鈥樷溾
- 鈥撯撯撯撯撯撯 鈥楻hwng Pennant a鈥檌 Thad: 鈥淐astellau Y Fflynt鈥 Angharad Llwyd (1780鈥1866)鈥, Studia Celtica, LVII (2023), 131鈥50
- 鈥撯撯撯撯撯撯 鈥樷 (9 March 2017)
- 鈥撯撯撯撯撯撯 鈥楾homas Pennant a鈥檙 Morrisiaid: Tri Llythyr o Archifdy Sirol Swydd Warwig鈥, Tlysau鈥檙 Hen Oesoedd, 40 (October 2016), 5鈥14
- 鈥撯撯撯撯撯撯 鈥楾homas Pennant, Emanuel Mendes da Costa, a 鈥渘od glas Mawddwy鈥濃, Journal of the Merioneth Historical and Record Society, XIX, no. I (2022), 35鈥48
- 鈥撯撯撯撯撯撯 鈥榃illiam Morris a Thomas Pennant: Cysylltiadau Cyffredin鈥, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (2019),&苍产蝉辫;23鈥48
- 鈥撯撯撯撯撯撯 鈥榊 Llanc yn Baronhill鈥, in
- 鈥撯撯撯撯撯撯 (ed.), 鈥樷
- 鈥撯撯撯撯撯撯 (ed.), 鈥樷
- 鈥撯撯撯撯撯撯 (ed.), Welsh Correspondence of the French Revolution 1789鈥1802 (Aberystwyth: University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, 2018)
- 鈥撯撯撯撯撯撯, Philip Beeley, and Yann Ryan, 鈥樷淔rom the Cabinets of mere vertuosi into the busy world鈥: Thomas Pennant鈥檚 Natural Philosophical Networks and the Creation of British Zoology, 1752鈥1766鈥, Huntington Library Quarterly, 86.2 (2024)
Dictionary of Welsh Biography: new records
- Gifford, Isabella (c.1825鈥1891)
- Grossman, Yehudit Anastasia (1919鈥2011)
- Hughes, Gainor (1745鈥1780)
- Jarman, Eldra Mary (1917鈥2000)
- Jones, Elizabeth May Watkin (1907鈥1965)
- Kotschnig, Elined Prys (1895鈥1983)
- Philipps, Leonora (1862鈥1915)
- Rh欧s, Elizabeth (1841鈥1911)
- Roberts, Gwen Rees (1916鈥2002)
- Shand, Frances Batty (c.1815鈥1885)
- Williams, Frances (Fanny) (?1760鈥c.1801)
- Ystumllyn, John (d. 1786)
Additional Information
- Member of 鈥楴etworking Archives: Assembling and Analyzing Early Modern Correspondence鈥, Cambridge, Oxford, online (2019鈥20)
- Organizer of an online conference, 鈥楻evisiting: Wales and Slavery, the Mission Field and Imperialism鈥 (2021), with a grant from the Learned Society of Wales
- Organizer of online workshops, 鈥楽lavery, Abolition, and beyond: Thomas Pennant鈥檚 account of Western Africa鈥 (2022), with a grant from the Wales Innovation Network
- Organizer of discussion group on antiquary Angharad Llwyd, with a grant from the University of South Wales and the 密桃传媒鈥檚 Collaborative Growth Fund (2022鈥3)