HUGHES, WILLIAM (1757 - 1846), Independent minister, hymn-writer, and composer

Second son of Hugh Jones and Jane Williams (widow) of Gadlys, Llanwnda, Caernarfonshire; he was christened 25 June 1757. He married Jane Jones, 20 February 1783, at Llanwnda, where too their son John was christened, 2 December 1784. He joined the Independents at Caernarvon when George Lewis was resuscitating Independency there, and in 1788 was set apart to be a lay preacher. After the departure of George Lewis (1794) he was appointed a peripatetic evangelist, and on 17 July 1795, was granted a preacher's licence by the Court of Quarter Sessions. His labours were so successful that it is impossible to relate the history of the oldest Independent chapels in Arfon, Eifionydd, and the Vale of Conway without bringing in his name as one of the principal founders. He was known in his travels as ' Hughes, Brynbeddau ' - Brynbeddau (Llanwnda) being the farm which he shared with his father after his marriage and of which he was the sole tenant from 1794 to 1814. About 1815 he moved to a house built near Saron chapel (1812) in the same parish and, on the 2 and 3 July 1821, being then 64 years of age, was ordained minister of Saron. As a pastor he was not as successful as he had been as an evangelist, and long before his death he had severed his connection with Saron and joined the church at Bontnewydd, which had also been founded by him. He wrote some excellent hymns, and some of his hymn tunes were published in Y Dysgedydd. He died 9 March 1846; in 1858 the Independent churches in the county erected a tombstone over his grave in Llanwnda parish churchyard.

Author

• Reverend Griffith Jones, (1886 - 1964)

Sources

• Llanwnda parish register
• Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru, iii, 246-8
• H. Ivor Jones, Hanes Annibyniaeth yn Sir Gaernarfon hyd ddiwedd y ddeunawfed ganrif. Llyfr cyntaf (Caernarfon 1897), 98-9
• David Morgan, Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg hyd 1900 (1944), 280-1
• Josiah Thomas Jones, Geiriadur Bywgraffyddol o Enwogion Cymru (Aberdâr 1867-70), i, 547
• Llawlyfr Undeb yr Annibynwyr (1930), 1930, 50-4
• Cofiant y Parch. David Griffith, Bethel, Arfon (1879); Seren Gomer, 1821, 315
• Y Dysgedydd, April 1846
• Cymru (O.M.E.), July 1893
• W. Williams, Blaenor wrth ei ddiwrnod gwaith cofiant Edward Williams, Talysarn (Caernarfon 1882)

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20734639

Published date: 1959

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