DAVIES
,
WILLIAM
(
1785
-
1851
),
Wesleyan minister and missionary
;
b.
12 Oct. 1785
near
Llandyrnog, Denbs.
In
1800
, after listening to
Edward
Jones
,
Bathafarn
(
1778
-
1837
) (q.v.)
, he became a member of the
Wesleyan connexion
and in
1805
before he was quite 20 years of age went to
Beaumaris
as
minister
. From
1806 until 1813
he was a
minister
in
Montgomeryshire
and
South Wales
, where he
established many new churches
. In
1814
he went to
London
, and before the end of the year had sailed to
Sierra Leone
as a
missionary
— the first
Welsh
Wesleyan
to do so. There he became
alderman
,
mayor
, and
Justice of the Peace
, but in
1818
, his health having broken down, he returned and became a
minister
first in the
Penzance
circuit (
1819-20
) and then in a number of
Welsh circuits
until his retirement in
1841
. He was
chairman of the province of Wales
(
1821-6
) and
secretary of the South Wales province
(
1829-33
). His publications included many articles written for the
Eurgrawn Wesleyaidd
, a number of booklets (mainly sermons), his diary as a
missionary
in
Sierra Leone
, and translations of
Wesley
's hymns. The disease which he had contracted in
Africa
affected his mind and he was found
hanged
near his home at
Kidwelly
,
9 Feb. 1851
.
Bibliography:
-
Hanes Wesleyaeth Gymreig
, 1911–3
, ii, 712-6;
-
Yr Eurgrawn Wesleyaidd
, Dolgellau
,
1909
, 210-5.
Author:
Rev. Griffith Thomas Roberts, M.A., (1887-1977), Tregarth, Bangor /
Talsarnau
