REES, OWEN (1717 - 1768), Independent minister

Born in 1717 in the Cefn-arthen district, near Llandovery. When Cefn-arthen congregation was rent by theological differences, the Calvinistic party formed a church (incorporated by Edmund Jones in 1740) at Clun-pentan; Owen Rees was one of its members. He went to school at Pen-twyn under Samuel Jones (fl. 1715-64) - in his last months there he was joined by Thomas Morgan (1720 - 1799). It is fairly clear that he had been invited to take charge of Clun-pentan in 1741, for a letter of 7 August (T.L. 362) from Edward Jones to Howel Harris names Rees as a Dissenting minister favourable to Methodism; but he was not ordained till March 1742; 9 March says Thomas Morgan's diary (regretting his inability to attend 'my dear friend's ordination') and the Cilgwyn church book (Cofiadur, 1923, 30), but 11 March according to Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru During his pastorate, the congregation built a meeting-house at Pentre-ty-gwyn. In 1756 he left, to become pastor at Aberdare. His predecessor there had been a Calvinist, and as far as is known Rees, too, was a Calvinist at that time; but it is clear that he and his church afterwards became Arminian; Edmund Jones in 1789 speaks of Rees's 'backsliding'. He died 14 March 1768, and was buried in the old Aberdare churchyard; two acrostic verses by his eventual successor in the pastorate, Edward Evan appear on his tombstone. His widow, Mary, married again, and lived to be 100 - see her obituary in the Monthly Repository, 1818, 143. Josiah Rees was their son.

Author

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

Sources

• Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru, iii, 583, 588-9
• The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1946-7, 125-6, 145
• and the other references given above

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20748866

Published date: 1959

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