THOMAS, BENJAMIN (1723 - 1790), Independent preacher and Methodist exhorter

He originally came from the north of Pembrokeshire or the south of Cardiganshire, but in 1741 went as a circulating school teacher to North Wales, where he had to endure persecution. He began to exhort with the Methodists and was appointed a public exhorter at the Watford Association, 1743 - he is referred to in the minutes as a 'licensed Dissenting Minister,' but it is doubtful whether he had been ordained and he is not called a minister in Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru. In 1743 he was again in North Wales and suffered persecution in Anglesey. In the Porth-y-rhyd Association (1744), he was appointed to assist Howel Harris as superintendent of the churches in Wales - Harris calls him 'my assistant' in his diary. He was sent to North Wales in 1748, and in 1749 is mentioned as one of the chief Methodist missionaries in that part of the country. He went to the Llanidloes Association (1750), and when the split took place, sided with Daniel Rowland. Harris met him again at the Newcastle Emlyn Association (1764). We find the name of 'Benjamin Thomas near Cardigan' in the list of Pembrokeshire subscribers to D. Rowland ' Tair Pregeth, 1772, but in the Pembrokeshire list of subscribers to Pum Pregeth, 1772, his address is given as 'near Llechryd.' He is mentioned as one of the exhorters who attended the Llangeitho Associations (1778 and 1783). His grave adjoins that of David and Ebenezer Morris in Tredreyr churchyard, and his tombstone records that he died 12 April 1790 at the age of 77.

Author

• Reverend Gomer Morgan Roberts, (1904 - 1993)

Sources

• Cylchgrawn Cymdeithas Hanes y Methodistiaid Calfinaidd, i, 23; xi, 48, 58; xxv, 12-13, 21, 102; xxvi, 78; xxviii, 38; xxxi, 25, 28; xxxii, 72
• R. Bennett, Methodistiaeth Trefaldwyn Uchaf, 1738–1852 (1929), 127, 171-2
• Robert Owen in Er Clod Saith Bennod ar Hanes Methodistiaeth yng Nghymru, 46
• Robert Jones (Rhoslan), Drych yr Amseroedd (Trefriw 1820), 83
• Y Traethodydd, 1883, 148-9
• John Pritchard, Methodistiaeth Môn (1888), 25
• Methodistiaeth Cymru (1851–6), i, 487-8; ii, 293, 304, 337
• J. Morgan Jones and W. Morgan, Y Tadau Methodistaidd (1895-1897), i, 234-5
• John Evans, Y trydydd byr-gofiant: yn cynwys hanes oddeutu cant o bregethwyr anordeiniedig a fu farw yn Sir Aberteifi o ddechreuad y cyfundeb hyd 1913 (Dolgellau 1913), 111-3

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20732659

Published date: 1959

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