HOWELL, DAVID (1797 - 1873), Calvinistic Methodist minister

Born at Waunbrics, St Clears, Carmarthenshire, 31 March 1797, son of Dafydd Howell. While still young he was received into the communion of the Bancyfelin society by Thomas Charles of Bala. In 1814 he went to Swansea as a tailor's apprentice. He became a member of Crug-glas church and began to preach there in 1817. In 1821 he was sent by his Connexion to Radnorshire as a missionary and he settled at Pen-y-bont. He was ordained at Llangeitho Association in 1824.

He returned to Swansea in 1827 and married Mary, daughter of his old master, John Cadwalader, a Calvinistic Methodist elder. He spent a short period at Carmarthen in 1840 and then moved to Llantwit Major in 1842 to take charge of churches in the Vale of Glamorgan. He returned again to Swansea in 1845 as pastor of Trinity church, where he exercised great influence till his death, 4 August 1873; he was buried in Crug-glas graveyard.

He was one of the chief Calvinistic Methodist leaders in Glamorgan throughout the 19th c. He was not a great preacher - he lacked fluency and his sermons were heavy - but he had a strong personality, and everyone considered him to be a devoted man of God. In addition to all this his energy and ceaseless industry made him a power and influence both within and outside the church.

Author

• Reverend Gomer Morgan Roberts, (1904 - 1993)

Sources

• Hugh Joshua Hughes, David Howell:-of Swansea. A brief memoir (Newport 1885)
• Y Drysorfa, 1919, 7-11
• W. Samlet Williams, Hanes Methodistiaeth Gorllewin Morgannwg sef hanes Eglwysi y Methodistiaid Calfinaidd yng Ngorllewin Morgannwg, o ddechreuad Methodistiaeth hyd o gylch y flwyddyn 1870 (1916), 19
• E. Tegla Davies, Can-Mlwyddiant Capel y Triniti, Abertawe, 12-16

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20732827

Published date: 1959

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