BIRCH
,
JAMES
(d.
1795?
),
watchmaker and sectary
.
The only account of him is that by
Alexander
Gordon
in the
D.N.B. He appears to have been a native of
Pembrokeshire
who practised his craft in
London
. He is first heard of as a
Muggletonian
, in
1759
, but seceded and
founded a sect of his own
(‘
Birchites
’) in
1778
; the sect flourished in
Pembrokeshire
. He is last heard of in
1795
.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
