PHILLIPS, DAVID (1751-1825), Unitarian minister

Born in 1751 at Waun-bwll near Glandŵr, Pembrokeshire, but after his marriage he farmed Pant-glas, Llanboidy, Carmarthenshire; subsequently he bought the farmstead of Pant-maen near Rhyd-y-parc, and was therefore currently known as ' the apostle of Pant-maen.' He was a member of Glandŵr church, and is said on doubtful authority to have been a preacher there. When the Arminian wing of Glandŵr seceded (c. 1787), and founded the church of Rhyd-y-parc (Llanwinio), Phillips joined it, and began preaching. On the death of Owen Davies (1719 - 1792), Phillips was ordained pastor. By 1811 (the date of the Unitarian missioner Lyons's visit to Rhyd-y-parc), Phillips was definitely a Unitarian, but too poorly in health to be active - it would seem that the church was then served chiefly by Benjamin Phillips of St Clears and William Thomas of Llangyndeyrn. But in 1816, when the missioner Wright visited the church, Phillips had a coadjutor, a John Evans, who may possibly have been the man named on p. 500 of David Jones's Hanes Bed. Deheubarth, but is more likely to have been the John Evans who, at that time (1816-25), had charge of the Unitarians who then used Dark Gate chapel at Carmarthen. Phillips died 11 June 1825 - according to his tombstone at Rhyd-y-parc; he was then 74.

His nephew, DAVID PHILLIPS (fl. 1814), who farmed Pil-mawr, Llanwinio, wrote hymns, and published, in 1814, Ychydig o hymnau newyddion yn bennaf at wasanaeth Undodiaid (J. Harris, Carmarthen) - the preface of seven pages is informative. See Yr Ymofynnydd, February 1930.

Author

• Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Sources

• Monthly Repository, 1811, 683 ff. (Lyons), and 1816, 680 ff. (Wright)
• Yr Ymofynnydd, 1884, 123 and 279 (and cf. 1859, 195)
• Yr Ymofynnydd, 1930, 21
• A History of Carmarthenshire, ii, 248-9 (but correct 'Penmaen' to Pant-maen) and 247

Published date: 1959

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