MORRIS, DAVID (1744 - 1791), Calvinistic Methodist exhorter, and hymn-writer

Born in 1744 at Lledrod, Cardiganshire, son of Morris Morgan. He is said to have started life as a drover but nothing is known of his religious connections at that time. In 1765, however, he began to exhort in the Methodist societies and soon achieved a reputation as a powerful preacher - one, moreover, who in the course of his travels up and down the country, acquired considerable influence over the common people. He began to get stout when he was still young and this prevented him from touring as much as some of his contemporaries. In 1774, at the request of the Methodists at Tŵr-gwyn, in the parish of Tredreyr, he went to that place to take charge of the society there, and made his home at Pen-y-ffos. Mary, his wife, was buried in 1788 and Williams of Pantycelyn wrote an elegy after her; his second wife is called 'Betti' in the elegy written upon him by Thomas Jones. The celebrated Ebenezer Morris was his son by his first wife. He died 17 September 1791, and was buried in Tredreyr churchyard.

David Morris was a hymn-writer of some distinction. In 1773 a collection of his hymns was published by J. Ross of Carmarthen under the title Can y Pererinion Cystuddiedig ar eu Taith tu a Seion . The 'Marwnad i Rees Williams o Gauo' is also included in this collection, while his Marwnad ar Farwolaeth Llewelyn Dafydd o Blwyf Trecastell, etc., was published from the same press in 1783.

Author

• Reverend Gomer Morgan Roberts, (1904 - 1993)

Sources

• W. Williams, Marwnad Mrs. Mary Morice; gwraig Mr. David Morice, pregethwr yr Efengil: yr hon a gafodd ei symmyd o'r byd hwn o ddeutu mis Ebrill, 1788: at ba un y chwanegwyd rhai o fyfyrdodau Mr. David Morice, ar cyfryw achos (Caerfyrddin 1788)
• Thomas Jones, Marwnad neu dduwiol goffadwriaeth o farwolaeth Dafydd Morys, o Ben-y-ffos, ym mhlwyf Troed-yr-aur, yn Sir Aberteifi, yr hwn, wedi iddo bregethu … ychwaneg na saith ar hugain o flynyddau, a ymadawodd o'r byd hwn Medi 16, 1791, yn 47 mlwydd oed (Carmarthen 1791)
• 'Emynyddiaeth: X. Morgan Rhys a Dafydd Morris,' Y Traethodydd, 1872, 70-3
• Y Gwyddoniadur Cymreig (1889-96), vii, 553
• Methodistiaeth Cymru (1851–6), ii, 83-7
• J. Morgan Jones and W. Morgan, Y Tadau Methodistaidd (1895-1897), i, 483-90
• J. Thickens, Emynau a'u Hawduriaid (1945), 46

Additional Links

• VIAF: 9718630
• Wikidata: Q18535821

Published date: 1959

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