GRIFFITHS, WILLIAM ALONZO (1842 - 1893), Independent minister, hymn-writer and hymnologist
Date of birth: 1842
Date of death: 1893
Gender: Male
Occupation: Independent minister, hymn-writer and hymnologist
Area of activity: Literature and Writing; Poetry; Religion
Author: Richard Griffith Owen
Born in 1842 at Pontargothi, Carmarthenshire, where, in Siloam chapel, he began to preach. He went to Carmarthen Presbyterian College in 1863, was ordained minister of Abersychan in 1867, and four years later moved to Shepherds Bush, London. He returned to Wales in 1875 and settled at Narberth whence he moved in 1886 to Sketty, Swansea. There he died 7 December 1893. He wrote both in English and in Welsh. An English book, Sermons preached in London, attracted considerable attention at the time, and many of his sermons were published in various numbers of the Homilist. He was the first to publish a book on the Welsh hymnwriters, Hanes Emynwyr Cymru - a useful reference book in spite of its shortcomings. He wrote a great number of hymns and translated several; one of his translations from the German finds a place in Y Caniedydd Cynulleidfaol Newydd.
Author
- Reverend Richard Griffith Owen, (1890 - 1973)
- E. Pan Jones, Oriel Coleg Presbyteraidd, Caerfyrddin: yn cynwys hanes yr holl fyfyrwyr fu yn y coleg o 1796 hyd 1899 (Merthyr Tydfil 1909), 108
- A History of Carmarthenshire, ii, 428
Sources
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
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