JENKINS
,
DAVID ERWYD
(
1864
-
1937
),
Calvinistic Methodist minister and historian
;
b. in
1864
at
Llwyn-y-wiwer
,
Pont-Yates, Carms.
, son of
John
and
Sarah
Jenkins
. The parents were
Baptists
, but the son, when a
shop apprentice
at
Llanelly
, joined
Capel Newydd C.M. church
there. After a time spent in
London
, he became a
draper's assistant
at
Newport, Mon.
; and it was there, in
1885
, at
Ebenezer C.M. church
, that he began
preaching
. He then went to the school kept by
Thomas
James
(
1834
-
1915
) (q.v.)
at
Llandysul
, and thence to
University College
,
Aberystwyth
. In
1893
he became
pastor
at
Llanbadarn-fawr
, and in
1895
at
Tremadoc
(
English
); there, in
1899
, he published
Bedd Gelert, Facts and Fancies
[see
Jones
,
William
(
1829?
-
1903
)
]; he also
published several Welsh translations of religious handbooks
. He was called in
1901
to the
pastorate
of the
C.M. English church
at
Denbigh
, and there began his remarkable career as a
researcher into the history of his connexion
. He reprinted (
1905
and
1906
) the old anti-Methodist pamphlets of
T. E.
Owen
and of
Hugh
Davies
of
Aber
(qq.v.). Then (
1908
) came his exhaustive three-volume biography of
Thomas
Charles
of
Bala
, which eventually brought him a
D.Litt.
degree from
Liverpool
. In
1911
(he resigned his pastorate in that year) appeared his valuable little book,
Calvinistic Methodist Holy Orders
, which in fact is a better representative of his quality as an
historian
than is the unwieldy and somewhat undiscriminating book on
Charles
. He was now appointed by the
C.M. Historical Society
to copy, and to edit for publication as supplements to its Historical Journal, the correspondence and diaries of
Howel
Harris
, but the plan failed; the war of
1914
broke out, and
Jenkins
in
1915
became (and remained till
1930
) an
assistant master
in the
Denbigh intermediate school
. He d.
6 Sept. 1937
, at
Llwyn-yr-eos
,
Pont-Henry
, while on a visit to his native countryside, and was buried in the
Baptist graveyard
there; on the preceding Sunday he had preached at
Ebenezer
,
Newport
, the scene of his first sermon.
Besides the books named above,
Jenkins
had contributed many articles, on the
history of Welsh Methodism
, to various periodicals. Almost at the end of his life (
1935
), he reprinted
Josiah
Woodward
's (
1697
, etc.)
Account of the Religious Societies
. His style was infelicitous, and in particular he was prone to adopt an aggressive tone which led many to deem him unkind. Those who knew him, however, found him kindly and co-operative; his bark was very much worse than his bite, and he was always ready to help a fellow-
researcher
when asked to do so.
Bibliography:
-
Cylchgrawn Cymdeithas Hanes y Methodistiaid
Calfinaidd
, xxii, 148-55;
- other obituary notices;
- personal acquaintance.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
