DAVIS (DAVIES), RICHARD (1658 - 1714), Independent minister

A Cardiganshire man from Llechryd, as some have it, he was at first a schoolmaster in London, but in 1689 was ordained minister of the Congregational church at Rothwell ('Rowell'), Northamptonshire His ministry there provoked much controversy among Dissenters : (1) he was accused of teaching Antinomian doctrines; (2) his use of 'revivalistic' methods in preaching and his extensive employment of lay itinerants, were repugnant to the more academic of his fellow- ministers; (3) his insistence on 'congregational' church-government and his hostility to 'a Presbyterian classis' greatly influenced English Congregationalists in their decision to abandon the ' Union ' of 1690 between Presbyterians and Independents. Daniel Williams was one of Davis's chief critics. In 1692 the Common Fund stopped its grant to Davis, and thus expelled him from the ' Union.' He died 10 September 1714. On his gravestone at Rothwell parish church he is said to have died on 11 September, aged 56. His successor at Rothwell was Mathias Maurice.

Author

• Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Sources

• R. W. Dale, History of English Congregationalism (London 1907), 479-80
• Manuscript (the property of the Presbyterian Board) published by Alexander Gordon under the title Freedom after Ejection. A Review (1690–1692) of Presbyterian and Congregational Nonconformity in England and Wales, 1917, 184-7
• D. M. Lewis in Y Cofiadur, 1925, 31-4
• Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society, ii, 128, vii, 224, and more especially vi, 389
• Jeremy Owen, Golwg ar y Beiau y sydd yn yr hanes a brintiwyd ynghylch pedair neu bum mlynedd i nawr, ym mherthynas i'r rhwygiad a wnaethbwyd yn Eglwys Henllan … 1707, 1708, 1709 (Carmarthen 1732-3) (University of Wales reprint, 1950)

Additional Links

• VIAF: 18638552
• Wikidata: Q18922208

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/