of Wales in 1969. The translation of the Bible into Welsh was important to the survival of the Welsh language. It had the effect, along with the Welsh translation of the Book of Common Prayer, of conferring status on Welsh as a liturgical language and a vehicle for worship. This in turn contributed to the language's continued use as a means of everyday communication down to the present day, despite the pressure of English. The edition of the William Morgan Bible used today uses the modern orthography (spelling), updated by Professor Henry Lewis (1889-1968). He completed the New Testament in 1936 and the rest of the Bible in 1955. It was printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society as "Y Beibl". He completed the Apocrypha in 1959, and this was printed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge as "Yr Apocrypha". These have now been digitised by the Bible Society and are included in their app called "ap Beibl". The most recent editions of the William Morgan Bible (1955 edition) were printed by the Trinitarian Bible Society using the 1955 orthography. Psalters William Middleton psalms, 1596 William Middleton, also spelt Midleton and Myddleton, was born about 1550 at Llansannan, Denbighshire in north Wales. From 1589 Middleton worked as a ship's captain for his cousin, the merchant Sir Thomas Myddelton. Meanwhile, he worked on his dream of translating the psalms into the strict, traditional Welsh poetic style of cynghanedd, using a variety of metres. In 1595 he published Rhann o Psalmae Dauyd, a Phrophwyti eraill gweddi i kynghanedhu\ in London. Then he set sail with Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hopkins, as captain of the Salomon Bonaventure in their abortive expedition to capture Panama city. He completed his version of the psalms on 24 January 1595 (now 1596) whilst anchored at the uninhabited island of Scutum (today called Isla Escudo de Veraguas), off the coast of Panama. He called his psalms Psalmae y Brenhinol Brophwyd Dafydh. Middleton returned from Panama in 1596 and died shortly after his return at Falmouth in Cornwall. William Middleton's psalms were dedicated to his cousin Sir Thomas Myddelton who lived at Chirk Castle in Denbighshire. In 1602, after Willliam Middleton had died, his cousin Thomas Myddleton advanced £30 to print the psalms. The psalms were collected by Thomas Salisbury, who also published other items in Welsh. In 1603 he had them published in London