Biographical Information

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Lewis Bayly (d 1631) was a bishop of the Church of England. Bayly is thought to have been born in either Carmarthen (or possibly Biggar, Scotland). The curate of Carmarthen, Thomas Bayly, may have been his father. Oxford educated, he became vicar of Evesham, Worcestershire and later, probably in 1604, he became rector of St Matthew Friday Street. He was then chaplain to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, and was later chaplain to King James I, who, in 1616, appointed him Bishop of Bangor. Bayly was an ardent Puritan. He died in Bangor. His fame rests on his book The Practice of Piety, directing a Christian how to walk that he may please God (date of first edition unknown; 3d ed., London, 1613). It reached its 74th edition in 1821 and has been translated into many other languages. It was one of the two books which John Bunyan's wife brought with her and it was by reading it that Bunyan was first spiritually awakened.

Walter Cradoc(k) (c. 1606–1659) With John Miles, Vavasor Powell and Morgan Llwyd, a leading Welsh Puritan. First an Anglican, he founded, with William Wroth, at Llanvaches, the first Independent church in Wales (1638). Later he became a Baptist. Born at Trefela, near Llangwm, Monmouthshire, he probably went to Oxford before becoming curate at Peterston-Super-Ely. In 1633, he became Erbery's curate at nearby St Mary's, Cardiff. Cradock and Wroth were reported for unorthodox preaching and refusal to read the Book of Sports. From late 1634 he spent almost a year preaching in Wrexham, where he saw Llwyd converted. Next he was in the Welsh borders, where he met Powell. In 1639, he came under the protection of Sir Robert Harley at Brampton Bryan but moved on to Llanfair Waterdine to lead an Independent congregation. With the advent of civil war, they joined the Broadmead Independents in Bristol. In 1643, royalist forces occupied Bristol and some moved to London. Cradock and Henry Jessey preached at All-Hallows-the-Great. In 1641 Cradock was one of the preachers sent to Wales by the Long Parliament. They formed a tight and effective group until the mid-1650s. Their authority was renewed twice, with funding. Cradock and others were to preach in Welsh, something he had done in 1645, to captured royalist Welshmen after Naseby. He was one of the “Welsh saints”, who commanded the troops of Thomas Harrison with Powell and Jenkin Jones. He later became a regular preacher to the Barebones Parlament. He opposed Powell's anti-Cromwell pamphlet The Word of God and, with most Welsh Puritans, supported Cromwell. He appears to have lived out his days back in Llangwm.

Thomas Rhys Davies (1790 - 1859) Born in Cilgerran, Pembrokeshire, he was a Baptist minister. In 1811 he visited North Wales and was persuaded by Christmas Evans to stay. There he served the circuit of Llansanffraid Glan Conwy and Rowen, Denbighshire. In 1820, he quarrelled with the Glanwydden church and left the Baptists to join the Wesleyans. He returned, however, to his old denomination some years later. In 1814 he married Ann Foulks of Llandrillo-yn-Rhos. The following year the two nearly drowned in a river. He died in Swansea.

Thomas Charles 1755-1814 Calvinistic Methodist preacher of considerable importance. Born in Llanfihangel Abercywyn, near St Clears, Carmarthenshire, his brother was the hymn-writer David Charles. Educated for the Anglican ministry at Llanddowror, Carmarthen and Jesus College, Oxford (1775–1778) he studied theology under John Newton at Olney. Ordained deacon 1778 in Somerset, he took priestly orders, 1780. He afterwards added to his charge further parishes but in June 1783 he resigned all his parishes and returned toWales, marrying Sarah Jones of Bala, orphan of a flourishing shopkeeper.

He had been influenced by the great revival movement in Wales and at 17 had been converted through Daniel Rowland. This was enough to make him unpopular with many Welsh clergy, and being denied the privilege of preaching for nothing at two churches, he helped his friend John Mayor at Shawbury, Shropshire, October 1, 1783-January 11, 1784. On January 25 he took charge of Llanymawddwy (14 miles from Bala) but was forced to leave after three months, the rector of Bala and others persuading his rector to dismiss him. His preaching, catechising and Methodism gave great offence. He then wrote to Newton and another clergyman friend in London for advice. The Church of England denied him employment, and the Methodists desired his services. His friends advised a return to England but it was too late. In September, accompanied by Henry Newman (his rector in Somerset), he went on a tour in Caernarfonshire. In December, he was preaching at the Bont Uchel Association and in 1784 joined the Methodists.

Before this, he had been in the habit of gathering poor children into his house for instruction, and soon there were so many that he had to use the chapel. This was the origin of the Welsh Circulating Schools, which he developed on the lines adopted by Griffith Jones Llanddowror. First a man was trained for the work by Charles, then he was sent to a district for six months, where he taught the children reading and Christian principles. Writing was added later. Expenses were met by collections made in the CM Societies. As funds increased masters multiplied, until in 1786 Charles had seven men whom he paid £10 pa; in 1787, 12; 1789, 15; 1794, 20. By this time the salary was £12 and £14 in 1801.

He had long known of Raikes's Sunday Schools but preferred his own system that gave six days tuition for every one of theirs. Manyenot only objected to working as teachers on Sunday but thought children forgot in the six days what they learnt on the one. Sunday Schools were first adopted by Charles in the case of young people in service unable to attend during the week. Even in that form much opposition was shown as teaching was thought to be a form of Sabbath breaking. His first Sunday School was in 1787. Wilberforce, Charles Grant and John and Henry Thornton were among those who contributed to funds; in 1798 the Sunday School Society (est 1785) extended its operations to Wales, making him its agent, and Sunday Schools grew rapidly in number and favour. A powerful revival broke out at Bala in autumn 1791 and his account of it in letters to correspondents, sent without his knowledge to magazines, kindled a similar fire at Huntly. Lack of Welsh Bibles was Charles's greatest difficulty in his work. John Thornton and Thomas Scott helped him secure supplies from the SPCK 1787-1789, when the stock became all but exhausted. In 1799 a new edition was brought out by the Society, and he managed to secure 700 of the 10,000 issued; the Sunday School Society got 3000 testaments printed and most of them passed into his hands in 1801. It was in 1800 that 15-year-old Mary Jones, walked 26 miles to obtain one of his Bibles. She was seen as a shining example of religious devotion, an inspiration to Charles and his colleagues. In 1800, when a frostbitten thumb gave him great pain and much fear for his life, his friend, Philip Oliver of Chester, died, leaving him director and one of three trustees over his chapel at Boughton. This added much to his anxiety. The Welsh causes at Manchester and London, too, gave him much uneasiness, and burdened him with great responsibilities at this time. In November 1802 he went to London, and on 7 December he sat at a committee meeting of the Religious Tract Society, as a country member, when his friend, Joseph Tarn, a member of the Spa Fields and RTS committees, introduced the subject of a regular supply of Bibles for Wales. Charles impressed the committee with his arguments in favour. When he visited London in 1803, his friends were ready to discuss the name of a new Society, whose sole object should be to supply Bibles. Charles returned to Wales on 30 January 1804 and the British and Foreign Bible Society was formally and publicly inaugurated on 7 March. The first Welsh testament issued by that Society appeared on the 6 May 1806, the Bible on the 7 May 1807, both being edited by Charles.

His Biblical Dictionary in four volumes appeared 1805-1811. It is still the standard work of its kind in Welsh. Three editions of his Welsh catechism were published for the use of his schools (1789, 1791, 1794); an English catechism for the use of schools in Lady Huntingdon's Connexion was drawn up by him 1797; his shorter catechism in Welsh appeared 1799, and passed through several editions, in Welsh and English, before 1807, when his Instructor (still the Connexional catechism) appeared. April 1799-December 1801 he edited six numbers of a Welsh magazine, Trysorfa Ysprydol (Spiritual Treasury) with Thomas Jones Mold.

The London Hibernian Society asked him to accompany David Bogue, Joseph Hughes and Samuel Mills to Ireland August 1807 to report on the state of Protestant religion there. Among the movements initiated as a result was the Circulating School system. In 1810, owing to the growth of Methodism and the lack of ordained ministers, he led the movement for connectionally ordained ministers. His influence was the chief factor in the success of that important step. 1811-1814 his energy was mainly devoted to establishing auxiliary Bible Societies. By correspondence he stimulated friends in Edinburgh to establish charity schools in the Highlands and the Gaelic School Society (1811) was his idea. His last work was a corrected edition of the Welsh Bible issued in small pica by the Bible Society.

Charles died "worn down by his activities" October 1814, nine days before he was 59. He was buried at nearby Llanycil. His widow, who had retired from business in 1810, died two weeks later. As a preacher he was in great request, though possessing but few of the qualities of a popular preacher. All his work received very small remuneration; the family was maintained by the profits made by Mrs Charles. Charles' influence is still felt and he is rightly claimed as one of the makers of modern Wales.

Thomas Charles Edwards (1837-1900) Born at Llanycil, Bala, he was the son of Lewis Edwards, founder of Bala Theological College and great grandson, through his mother, of Thomas Charles. He was educated in Bala and Oxford. There he was deeply influenced by Mark Pattison and Benjamin Jowet, keeping in touch with them from then on. He began preaching with the Presbyterian Church of Wales in 1856, being influenced by the 1859 revival. In 1867 he became a minister in Liverpool and was considered one of the leading preachers of his day. In 1872 the new university at Aberystwyth was founded and he was appointed principal. It was destroyed by fire in 1885 and he collected £25,000 towards rebuilding. He resigned in 1891 to become head of Bala Theological College. In 1876, he married Mary Roberts. They had four children. Weakened by a stroke in 1894, he continued to work until his death in Bala in 1900.

John Elias (1774-1841) An exceptionally powerful preacher, 10,000 hearers once gathered to hear him. A High-Calvinist, he stoutly defended the doctrine of election when attacked. Called the Methodist Pope by some he rejected the idea that the people's voice is God's voice. Born at Abererch, near Pwllheli, he was brought up mainly by his grandfather. Rare then, he was early able to read in Welsh or English. They attended the parish church then sought out Methodist preachers to hear. The Bala Association of 1792 had quite an impact. He went to live with Griffith Jones, a local preacher, in Caernarvon, where his abilities were soon noticed. He was set apart to the ministry when only 20. Known before as Jones, he became Elias to save confusion. He made rapid progress as a preacher, having an intense passion for work and great oratorical gifts. In 1799 he moved to Anglesey. Married to Elizabeth Broadhead of Lanbadrig they were together until she died 1828. Two children died in infancy, two survived their father. In 1830 he remarried and moved to Llangefni, where he remained until his death and burial in Llanfaes Churchyard. He wrote several theological tomes in Welsh and an autobiography, published long after his death. He often contributed the denominational magazine Y Drysorfa.

Ann Griffiths (née Thomas) 1776–1805 Poet and hymn writer in Welsh, she was born near Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa, six miles (10 km) from Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire (now Powys). The daughter of John Evan Thomas, a tenant farmer and churchwarden, and his wife, Jane, she had two older sisters, an older brother, John, and a younger, Edward. Her parents' farmhouse, Dolwar Fechan, was very isolated. It was some two and a half miles (4 km) south of Llanfihangel and a mile (1.6 km) north of Dolanog, set among hills and streams. (Nearby was Pennant Melangell, where St Melangell lived as a hermit in the 6th century). Ann was brought up in the Anglican church but in 1794, aged 18, her mother died and about this time or perhaps earlier, she followed her brothers John and Edward into the Calvinistic Methodists. In 1796 she joined a CM church after hearing Benjamin Jones Pwllheli. After the deaths of both her parents, she married Thomas Griffiths, a farmer from Meifod and a CM elder. She died after childbirth in August 1805, aged 29, and was buried at Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa. She left a handful of stanzas in Welsh preserved and published by her mentor, CM minister, John Hughes Pontrobert, and his wife, Ruth, who had been a maid at Ann's farm and a close confidante. Ann's poems express her fervent Christian faith and reflect her incisive intellect and thorough scriptural knowledge. She is the pre-eminent female hymn writer in Welsh. Her work is regarded as a highlight of Welsh literature. Saunders Lewis described her longest poem Rhyfedd, rhyfedd gan angylion ... (Wondrous, wondrous to angels ...) as "one of the majestic songs in the religious poetry of Europe". Her hymn Wele'n sefyll rhwng y myrtwydd is commonly sung (to Cwm Rhondda). A musical about her was televised in 2004.

Christmas Evans (1766-1838) For some "the greatest preacher that the Baptists have ever had in Great Britain", he was born near Llandysul, Cardiganshire. His shoemaker father died early and he grew up an illiterate farm labourer, losing an eye fighting in his teens. At 17, he became servant to Presbyterian minister, David Davies. Influenced by a revival then in progress, he learned to read and write in English and Welsh. He heard itinerant Calvinistic Methodist preachers and joined the Baptists in Llandysul and began to preach. In 1789 he went to North Wales. He first preached in the remote Llŷn Peninsula, then in Llangefni, Anglesey, building up a strong Baptist community, modelled to an extent on Calvinistic Methodism. Many new chapels were built, money being collected on preaching tours to the South. In 1826 he moved to Caerphilly, then Cardiff. In 1832, responding to urgent calls from the north, he settled in Caernarfon and again undertook the old work of building and collecting. Taken ill on a tour in South Wales, he died at Swansea. Always a Calvinist, for a time he came under Sandemanian influence. His chief characteristic was a vivid imagination that earned him the name "The Bunyan of Wales".

Philip Henry (1631-1696) Nonconformist clergyman, father of Matthew (and five others) and married to Katharine Mathews, only child of Daniel Mathews of Bronington and Broad Oak, Flintshire. Born in London, his father was a courtier. As a child, he played with future kings, Charles II and James II. He studied at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, graduating BA 1650, MA 1652. His mother, a strong Puritan, took him to hear fine preachers and he was converted through Stephen Marshall in 1647. In January, 1649 he observed Charles I going daily to his trial and execution. He began to preach in 1653 and was soon engaged as tutor to the sons of Judge John Puleston at Emeral, Flintshire and preacher at Worthenbury Chapel, Bangor-on-Dee. In 1657 he was ordained a Presbyterian at Prees, Shropshire, though preferring Ussher's modified episcopacy. He declined to move to Wrexham or London in 1659. Mrs Puleston had died in 1658 and the judge died the next year. Their eldest son, Roger, had no love for his former tutor. Henry welcomed the Restoration but it meant demotion, persecution and prosecution. In 1661 he was ejected and in 1662 silenced. He moved to Broad Oak, to a property of his wife's. Imprisoned for apparently supporting insurrection, after the Five Mile Act he moved to Whitchurch for a spell. It was only after the short-lived indulgence of 1672 that he resumed a regular public ministry. In 1681 he was fined for keeping a conventicle and imprisoned again during Monmouth's rebellion. At the revolution he had great hopes of 'comprehension' but toleration it was, which he accepted with some reservations. He died in harness.

George Herbert (1593-1633) was a poet, orator and Church of England minister. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets and he is recognised as "one of the foremost British devotional lyricists." Born in Wales into an artistic and wealthy family he was largely raised in England. He received a good education that led to his admission to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1609. He went there intending to become a priest but became the University's Public Orator and attracted the attention of King James I. He sat in the Parliament in 1624 and briefly in 1625. After the death of James, Herbert renewed his interest in ordination. He gave up his secular ambitions in his mid-thirties and took holy orders, spending the rest of his life as rector of the rural parish of Fugglestone St Peter, just outside Salisbury. He was noted for unfailing care for his parishioners, bringing the sacraments to them when they were ill and providing food and clothing for those in need. Fellow poet Henry Vaughan called him "a most glorious saint and seer". He was never a healthy man and died of consumption aged 39.

John Miles, also known as John Myles, (c. 1621–1683) was the founder of Swansea, Massachusetts, and the founder of the earliest recorded Baptist churches in Wales and Massachusetts. Miles was born in Wales around 1621 and was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. He then went to London where he visited the Glasshouse church, an early Particular Baptist congregation. He then returned to Ilston in Wales, where he served as a minister 1649-1662 and he served as a "tryer" for ministers under Cromwell's government. After the restoration of the monarchy and requirement for all ministers to adhere to the Book of Common Prayer, he left England for the Plymouth Colony in the 1660s. He took the historic Ilston Book to North America with him, and it is now located at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. In America he worked with the Congregationalist state church in Rehoboth before his group was told to leave the town for its Baptist views, and he and his congregation (largely from Ilston) then founded the town of Swansea and the first Baptist Church in Swansea. He served as pastor for 20 years. During King Philip's War, he pastored First Baptist Church, Boston, while fleeing from the Indians.

Philip Pugh (1679-1760) Dissenting minister born at Hendref, Blaenpenal, Cardiganshire, where he inherited a good estate. He later married an heiress. He trained for the Independent ministry at the nonconformist college at Brynllŵarch, near Bridgend, founded by Samuel Jones after his ejection. Pugh joined the church at Cilgwyn in 1704 and in 1709 was ordained co-pastor with David Edwards and Jenkin Jones. He and his colleagues were in charge of up to eight churches, with a united membership of about a thousand. From 1709-1760 he baptised 680 children. A strong Trinitarian, he was a Calvinist and sympathised with the revival. He encouraged Daniel Rowland to preach more evangelically. He died aged 81 and was buried in Llanddewi Brefi.

David Thomas (1813-1894) Welsh born preacher and publisher of The Homilist, a magazine of liturgical thought. Son of William Thomas of Hopsill, also a preacher, Thomas was born near Tenby and started life in a commercial career, in which he achieved a rapid success. He would give his Sundays to preaching even when in business but was then persuaded to devote himself wholly to the ministry. He entered Newport Pagnell College to prepare for the ministry and then became a pastor at Chesham, Bckinghamshire. In 1844, he moved to Stockwell, London, where he ministered to a congregation reaching up to 900 people until his retirement in 1877. He began publication of The Homilist in 1852, and proceeded to publish over forty volumes. He also wrote The Crisis of Being - six lectures to Young Men on Religious Decision; The Progress of Being; The Genius of the Gospels; A Commentary on the Gospel of St Matthew; The Practical Philosopher; Problemata Mundi, etc. His collected writings eventually filled nine volumes, republished 1882-1889. He was the originator of the Working Men's Club and Institute, of which Lord Brougham was first president; and of an insurance plan for the benefit of widows of ministers. His congregants included Catherine Mumford (who he married to William Booth in 1855) and Wilson Carlile. Pennsylvania's Waynesburg College awarded him an honorary doctorate, recognising his efforts to reconcile the churches of the USA and England. He died at his daughter's home in Ramsgate and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery.

Thomas William (1761-1844) Independent minister, poet and hymnwriter. Born in Trerhedyn, Pendeulwyn, Glamorganshire, as a young man he was a Methodist at Tre-hyl, where he came under the influence of David Jones Llangan. After the expulsion of Peter Williams in 1791 he left the Methodists and gathered a congregation near Aberthaw. In 1806 Bethesda Chapel was built by him and his flock at Llantwit Major. He remained as minister there for the rest of his life. He was married to Jane Morgan of Eglwys Brewis.