THOMAS, WILLIAM (died 1813), Unitarian Baptist minister
Date of death: 1813
Gender: Male
Occupation: Unitarian Baptist minister
Area of activity: Religion
Author: Robert Thomas Jenkins
hailed from Llanfynydd, Carmarthenshire, was baptized there, but removed when still young to Llandyfân, Carmarthenshire, and thence to the neighbourhood of Pant Teg, Cilrhedyn, Carmarthenshire. He must have begun preaching before 1795, for in February of that year (Trafodion Cymdeithas Hanes Bedyddwyr Cymru, 1942, 17) we find him preaching at a quarterly meeting at Llwyndafydd, Cardiganshire. In 1796, he and Griffith Jones were ordained co-pastors of Pant Teg - ironically enough, Thomas took part in the ordination service of Titus Lewis at Blaen-y-waun, Pembrokeshire, in 1797. In the schism of 1799, Thomas and the Arminian party retained possession of Pant Teg chapel, which is today one of the three chapels which alone in Wales bear the designation ' General Baptist ' - see under Evan Lloyd, (1764 - 1847). In 1801, Thomas resigned his pastorate, and in September entered the General Baptist seminary in London; but about Christmas returned to Wales in broken health (W. T. Whitley, Minutes of the General Assembly of General Baptists, ii, under 1802). In 1806 (op. cit., under 1806,) we hear of his having ' purchased a house for the worship of God ' for the General Baptists at Llangyndeyrn, Carmarthenshire. His name appears some half-a-dozen times in the Monthly Repository between 1806 and 1813; and in 1810 (Whitley, op. cit., under 1810) he reports on the state of the General Baptists in Wales, to the Assembly in London. He died 26 December 1813; his tombstone describes him as a ' Unitarian minister.' His age is not given, but all we know about him suggests that he was still a young man - perhaps about 45. His congregation had to surrender its chapel to the Particular Baptists in 1820, and had died out by the middle of the century.
Author
- Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)
- David Jones, Hanes y Bedyddwyr yn Neheubarth Cymru (1839), 257, 309, 372, 479
- Trafodion Cymdeithas Hanes Bedyddwyr Cymru, 1930 and 1931
- and the references given above
Sources
- Wikidata: Q20821457
Additional Links
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
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