Memorial to Thomas Phaer of Cilgerran

Image: © Natasha Ceridwen de Chroustchoff Taken: 16 Jun 2009

This memorial in the church is a modern one that commemorates an important C16 resident of the village, the first writer in English to publish a book on paediatrics, "The Boke of Chyldren", in 1545. See http://www.neonatology.org/classics/phaire/index.html Thomas Phaer, as well as practising medicine, was a lawyer, a translator of Virgil's Aeneid and MP for Cardigan from 1555 to 1559. He lived at Fforest in Cilgerran, where he was constable of the castle, and died there leaving 3 daughters. He was described by the C16 local historian George Owen as "a man honoured for his learninge, commended for his governmente,and beloved for his pleasante natural conceiptes; he chose Pembrokeshire for his earthly place, where he lived worshipfully, and ended his days to the greaffe of all good men at the Forest of Cilgerran."

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