WILLIAMS, JOHN (1768 - 1825), Baptist minister in Wales and the U.S.A.;

Born 8 March 1768 at Plas Llecheiddior, near Dolbenmaen, Caernarfonshire. He moved when quite young to a house called Rhwng-y-ddwyryd, Dolbenmaen. Although brought up as an Anglican he refused his family's offer of a course of education in the classics but chose instead to enter a business at Caernarvon. He was converted when he heard a sermon given by David Morris, Twr-gwyn, Calvinistic Methodist exhorter. In 1787 he joined the Congregational church of which the minister was Dr. George Lewis, who persuaded him to start preaching. In 1791, however, he accepted baptism by immersion and joined Horeb Baptist church, Dolbenmaen, shortly afterwards he became its pastor. He travelled widely throughout Wales and became a personal friend of Christmas Evans. Under the influence of the unrest caused by the French Revolution he emigrated, with several other persons, to the U.S.A. He reached New York on 25 July 1795, and although he knew very little English when he landed he was appointed pastor of an English church in Oliver Street in that city in August 1798; he continued to minister to the church until he died on 22 May 1825.

Author

• Robert (Bob) Owen, (1885 - 1962)

Sources

• Sketch of the Reverend John Williams (1850), 1850
• D. Williams, Cofiant J. R. Jones, Ramoth yn cynnwys casgliad helaeth o'i lythyrau (Carmarthen 1913), 192-203
• [ Y Cymmrodor, xlv, 139, 153]

Additional Links

• VIAF: 277452313
• Wikidata: Q20821183

Published date: 1959

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