WILLIAMS, MOSES (died 1819), General (but Trinitarian) Baptist minister, and blacksmith
Date of death: 1819
Gender: Male
Occupation: General (but Trinitarian) Baptist minister, and blacksmith
Area of activity: Business and Industry; Religion
Author: Robert Thomas Jenkins
a native of Llanfynydd, Carmarthenshire, but it was at Llandyfân that he was baptized, and it was there that he began to preach - probably before 1792. He did not agree with Calvinism, nor with the Methodist tendencies of most of his fellow- Baptists; in 1794, and again in 1796 (Trafodion Cymdeithas Hanes Bedyddwyr Cymru, 1930, 39 and 40) we find him siding in the Quarterly Meetings with the left wing, and maintaining (as John Richard Jones of Ramoth did) that 'faith' was nothing more than simple belief. In 1797 he was ordained minister of Llandyfân, and in 1798 started another church in Pontbren-araeth in the parish of Llangadog. In the 1799 schism, he and his two churches broke away from the Particular Baptists, although they continued to be Trinitarians; Williams welcomed the advent of the Wesleyan mission to those parts, and we find him in 1806 (A History of Carmarthenshire, ii, 253) preaching in the Wesleyan chapel at Carmarthen. He preached in the Assembly of the General Baptists at Newcastle Emlyn in May 1807 (Monthly Repository, 1807, 333), but it is obvious that by 1809 (ibid., 1809, 695) it was a ' John Griffiths ' who had taken the lead at Llandyfân - for further information about this and other matters relating to this church (which by this time was Unitarian) see T. Oswald Williams in Yr Ymofynnydd, 1930, 41-6. Griffiths's vigorous proselytising was a thorn in Williams's side, and his horror of Unitarianism proved stronger than the reasons which had previously led him to leave the Calvinistic Baptists. He was received back into his old denomination at the Quarterly Meeting held at Easter, 1814, at Felin-foel; and he was followed (1815) by most of his congregation at Llandyfân. He seems to have given up preaching (certainly, he was no longer a minister); he resumed his work as a blacksmith near Swansea. He died December 1819; he was highly spoken of as a ' sober, conscientious, and godly ' man.
Author
- Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)
- David Jones, Hanes y Bedyddwyr yn Neheubarth Cymru (1839), 346, 362-3
- and the other references given above
Sources
- Wikidata: Q20734006
Additional Links
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
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