EVANS, WILLIAM HUGH Gwyllt y Mynydd (1831-1909), Wesleyan minister and man of letters

son of Ioan Tachwedd (John Evans, 1790 - 1856) and brother of Cynfaen (John Hugh Evans). Born at Maenllwyd Mawr, Ysgeifiog, Flintshire, 13 January 1831, he left school early because his father would not permit him to learn the catechism of the Established Church. He began to preach in 1850, was received into the ministry in 1855, and was called to minister to the Holyhead circuit in 1856. Thereafter, he served in the following circuits: Caernarvon, Abergele, Beaumaris, Llanfair Caereinion, Denbigh (and Rhyl), Llangollen, Dolgelley, Mold, Llanrwst, Portmadoc, Barmouth, Liverpool (Shaw Street), Bagillt, and Rhyl, where he retired (1895); he started a new church at Dolwyddelan and built new chapels at Borth-y-Gest and Rhyl (Soar), and left every one of his circuits with an increased membership. He was the means of setting up Wesleyan councils for which purpose he subdivided the province into smaller groups; he also initiated Sunday school conferences. An ardent politician (in an age when this was frowned upon by his denomination), he took a prominent part in establishing the board school at Llangollen (1870), and condemned the Boer war. He was an assiduous writer, contributing articles to the Eurgrawn for sixty years and to the Winllan (which he edited from 1864 to 1867) for fifty-seven years; he was one of the founders of Y Gwyliedydd (1877) and later edited it for thirteen years (at Rhyl); he also contributed to the Traethodydd, Y Geninen, and the Athronydd. He published a number of commentaries and catechisms, as well as a selection of hymns for the use of the Sunday schools. In 1888 he published a memoir of his brother Cynfaen. He died 28 June 1909.

Evans's son, WILLIAM OWEN EVANS (1864 - 1936), also a minister and man of letters, was born at Llanfair Caereinion, Montgomeryshire, in 1864, and educated at a school at Leeds, at Llanrwst grammar school, and at Didsbury Wesleyan College. He began his ministry in 1887, was president of the Welsh Assembly in 1914, and chairman of the Second North Wales District 1924-33; in 1930 he was elected one of the Legal Hundred of his denomination. He retired in that year to Prestatyn, and died there 16 July 1936 - he was buried at Rhyl. He was considered a very good preacher, in either language. Besides his biography of his father, and a book on Thomas Coke, he published several commentaries; he also wrote much for the Eurgrawn and other periodicals, and was for six years editor of Y Winllan. He wrote a number of hymns.

Author

• Reverend Edward Tegla Davies, (1880 - 1967)

Sources

• Memoir by his son (below) in Yr Eurgrawn Wesleyaidd, 1910
• minutes of the British Conference, 1909

Published date: 1959

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