ROBERTS, EMMANUEL BERWYN (1869 - 1951), minister (Meth.)

Born 31 July 1869 in Y Nant, Rhewl, in the parish of Llantysilio, Llangollen, Denbighshire, one of the eleven children of Morris and Jemima Roberts. The family moved to Carrog, where Emmanuel was an apprentice shoemaker, but his mother died when he was 12 and the impoverished family left for Penygroes, where he and his father found work in Coedmadog, clearing rubble in a clay pit. There, he began to preach, and he went to assist the Welsh Wesleyan minister in Hanley, Staffs., and worked in the steelworks and the coal mine there. In 1891 he went to the Corwen circuit as a lay-agent, living in Tŷ Nant, and then to a similar post in Dinas Mawddwy. In 1893, he went to Richmond College, and from there as a probationer-minister to Pen-y-cae, Ebbw Vale, in 1895, and to Treharris in 1896. In 1897, he was appointed assistant to the Reverend John Evans, Eglwys-Bach, Pontypridd, and it was he who insisted on giving him the middle name ' Berwyn ', because he thought that no-one should be called ' Emmanuel '. From that time, he was always known by his new name. When John Evans died, he went to Pont-rhyd-y-groes, and in 1899, he was ordained in the first Conference of the Wesleyans in Machynlleth. He went to Corris in 1900, and there married Annie Roberts, adopted daughter of David and Ellen Roberts, Waterloo House, Caernarfon. They had four children, 2 girls, who married Wesleyan ministers, and two sons, who became local preachers.

He served twelve circuits; he was secretary to the Second Province of North Wales from 1914 to 1933, Chairman of the Province from 1933 to 1936, and President of the Welsh Cymanfa in 1930. He came to early eminence as an expositor, and that was the chief characteristic of his preaching. His Commentary on Ephesians was published in 1902, that on the Epistles of Peter in 1904, and two volumes on the Gospel according to St. John in 1931. He died in Colwyn Bay on 26 January 1951.

Author

• Gwilym Richard Tilsley, (1911 - 1997)

Sources

• Information supplied by his son, Selyf Roberts

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20821126

Published date: 2001

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