Shemi Wad (James Wade) - 'Storiwr Celwydd Gole' Wdig / Goodwick 'Tall Tale Teller'

Ganwyd Shemi tua 1816. Yng nghyfrifiad 1841, wedd e’n gweithio ar y tir ym mhlwyf Llanwnda. Dywedir iddo hefyd gael profiad o weithio ar y môr gyda’i frawd.
Hen lanc we Shemi, yn gymeriad lleol adnabyddus iawn.

Bydde Shemi yn hoffi i bobl feddwl amdano fel hen gapten-môr, ond mae’n bosib mai’r gwir we iddo bysgota rhywfaint yn ei henaint. Nath e erioed hwylio o olwg tir, ond mewn niwl. Er hyn, we ganddo straeon lu am fordeithiau, am Indiaid Cochion yn Ffiji ac Escimos yn Ne Affrica! Wedd e’n taeru fod ei storïau ‘yn wir bob gair’, ac os amheuai rhywun hynny, poerai lond ceg o boer llawn baco i’w lygad!

We walydd bwthyn tlawd Shemi, yn Duke Street, Wdig, wedi eu staenio gan faco wrth iddo ymestyn ei gylch poeri. Wrth siarad, byddai Shemi yn smoco ei bib, poeri a thuchan, gan godi a gostwng ei ysgwyddau, gan weud bod chwain yn ei boeni.

Un o’i straeon mwyaf poblogaidd oedd am y daten fowr, a oedd mor drom fel bu rhaid ei ffrwydro’n bishys ‘a mynd a hi ar gart llusg yn bedwar pishyn!’

Bu farw Shemi ar 2 Ionawr 1897, yn bedwar ugain mlwydd oed ac fe’i claddwyd ym mynwent Capel Rhosycaerau. Rhoddwyd carreg ar ei fedd drwy haelioni rhai o’i gyfeillion. Arni ysgrifennwyd y geiriau, ‘Cyfaill i bawb a hoff gan bawb’.

Shemi was born around 1816. In the 1841 census, he was a farm worker in the parish of Llanwnda. He is also said to have experience of working at sea with his brother. Shemi never married or raised a family, but was a very well-known local character.

Shemi would like people to think of him as an old sea captain, but the reality was that he may have done some fishing in his old age. He never sailed in open seas, except possibly in fog! Despite this, he told many stories about long sea voyages, about Red Indians in Fiji and Eskimos in South Africa! He maintained that his stories were ‘true every word’, and if someone doubted that, he directed a mouthful of tobacco-filled saliva to his eye!

The walls of Shemi’s home, in Duke Street, Goodwick, were stained with black tobacco juice in an effort to extend his spit circle. While speaking, Shemi would juggle a clay pipe in his mouth, spit and grumble, raising and lowering his shoulders, claiming that fleas bothered him.

One of his most popular stories was about the massve potato he had grown, which was so heavy that it had to be blasted into bits ‘and hauled on a drag cart in four pieces!’

Shemi died on 2 January 1897, at the age of eighty years, and was buried in the cemetery of Rhosycaerau Chapel. A stone was placed on his grave through the generosity of some of his friends. On it are the words, ‘Friend of all and loved by everyone’.