HARRIES
(
HARRIS
,
HARRY
),
JOHN
(
1722
-
1788
), ‘of
Ambleston
’,
Pembs.
,
early Methodist exhorter
— not to be confused with
John
Harris
(
1704
-
1763
) (q.v.)
‘of
S. Kennox
.’ Considering
Harries
's fame, it is curious how very few definite facts about him are available. He was at an early date
in charge of a group of Societies
in
north Pembrokeshire
, and became
Howel
Davies
's (q.v.)
right-hand man; it is by no accident that
Woodstock
, the oldest
Calvinistic Methodist
chapel in
Pembrokeshire
, is in
Ambleston
parish. On the death of
Howel
Davies
(
1770
),
Harries
(who was a well-to-do
farmer
) superintended the whole
Methodist
work in the county until the arrival of
Nathaniel
Rowland
(q.v.)
; according to
William
Gambold
(see under
Gambold
), ‘he was one of the strictest and most approved of men, universally beloved’; and
Rowland
Hill
thought very highly of him. He strove hard to stem the
Moravian
tide in
Pembrokeshire
: we find him in
1768
accusing the
Brethren
of ‘taking away
Mr.
Howell
Davies
's people,’ and
Edward
Oliver
(q.v.)
reports that
Harries
remonstrated vigorously with him in
1770
‘for coming among their people, as he called them’ — though the two men lodged together at
Treddafydd
after
preaching
together, amicably enough, ‘in the
Methodist Meeting House
.’ He d. at
Newport, Pembs.
,
7 March 1788
, when (according to his tombstone) 66 years of age. He had a son,
EVAN
HARRIES
, who began to
exhort
in
1784
, and was one of the thirteen
South Wales
exhorters
ordained in
1811
; he d.
1819
. Several of
John
Harries
's descendants became
ministers
.
Bibliography:
- Moravian manuscript records at Haverfordwest;
-
Methodistiaeth Cymru
, 1851–6
, ii, 303-9;
-
Cylchgrawn Cymdeithas Hanes y Methodistiaid
Calfinaidd
, iv, nos. 1 and 2.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
