GWALCHMAI
,
HUMPHREY
(
1788
-
1847
),
Calvinistic Methodist minister
—
not to be confused with the
19th cent
,
poet
Gwalchmai
(
Richard
Parry
,
1803
-
1897
, q.v.)
— b.
14 Jan. 1788
, was a son of
Edward
Gwalchmai
(
1757
-
1799
), of
Dolgar
,
Llanwyddelan, Mont.
, a substantial freehold which had been in the family for four generations. His religious activities began early, more especially in
Sunday school
work; he became an
elder
at
seventeen and a
preacher
at nineteen, despite the fact that
Welsh
was not the language of his childhood. Marrying in
1813
, he set up business at
Llanidloes
. In
1816
, he formally agreed to undertake pastoral charge of the
Calvinistic Methodist
church there — the event is noteworthy as being the first official recognition in
North Wales
(and perhaps in all
Wales
) of the settled pastorate in the
Calvinistic Methodist connexion
. He was ordained in
1819
, and from
1820 till 1830
was
secretary
of the
North Wales Calvinistic Methodist Association
. Those were the years in which the confession of faith and the constitutional deed of the
Calvinistic Methodist
were drawn up, and
Gwalchmai
was thus ‘ex officio,’ one of the two
secretaries of the drafting committee
set up by the
North and South Wales Associations
; it was he who drafted articles 18 and 41-44 of the
Confession
. In
1832
, however, he fell into great adversity. In his absorption in
preaching
and
connexional administration
, he had neglected his hitherto prosperous affairs, and in particular had lost heavily in a
lead-mining enterprise
at
Tylwch
. His bankruptcy necessarily entailed inhibition from his ministerial functions, despite universal sympathy. He was restored to the ministry in
1840
, but never regained his financial prosperity. Removing in
1842
to
Oswestry
, he d. there
29 March 1847
. In
1836
, he had begun publishing a magazine,
Yr Athraw
, and he continued to
edit
it until
1844
.
Yr Athraw
may be regarded as the precursor of
Y Drysorfa
(
1845
) — almost officially so, indeed, for an arrangement was entered into whereby the former gave place to the latter. Indeed,
Humphrey
Gwalchmai
was a far more important man, in his age and in his region, than could well be shown in a brief notice of his career.
Bibliography:
-
T. Mordaf Pierce
,
Y Parchedig Humphrey Gwalchmai, y bugail
cyntaf un Nghyfundeb y Methodistiaid Calfinaidd gyda threm
ar hanes dechreuad yr Achos yn nosbarth Llanidloes
,
1908
(2nd ed., n.d.)
1909
.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
