GRIFFITHS, THOMAS (1645 - 1725), first minister of the Welsh Tract Baptist church in the present state of Delaware, U.S.A.

He was born at Llanfyrnach, Pembrokeshire, in 1645, but is described with Elizabeth, his wife, as 'of Melinau ' in the roll of members of Rhydwilym church in 1689. There is no evidence in the church register either that he was baptized there, as some reports say, in 1677, or that he became one of the ordained assistants of William Jones (died c. 1700), but it is known that it was he who led the small group of church members who emigrated to America in 1701, settling first at Penepek, Pennsylvania, and in 1703 at Welsh Tract. He died 25 July 1725, aged eighty, and was buried, according to some writers, at Penepek, but according to others (more probably) at Pencader, Delaware. He was the father-in-law of Abel Morgan.

Author

• Benjamin George Owens

Sources

• Hanes y Bedyddwyr ymhlith y Cymry: o amser yr Apostolion, hyd y flwyddyn hon: yn ddwy ran (Caerfyrddin 1778), 1885, 355-6
• Hanes y Bedyddwyr yn Nghymru, iii, 108
• Rhydwilym church register (in N.L.W.)
• H. Blackwell, NLW MSS 9258A: A Dictionary of Welsh Biography
• Y Cenhadwr Americanaidd sef cylchgrawn gwybodaeth fuddiol a dyddorawl i Gymry America / The American messenger (New York 1840-1901), 1880, 324-5
• The Cambrian, 1881, 188-190

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20734455

Published date: 1959

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