MORGAN
,
WILLIAM
(
1801
-
1872
),
Baptist minister
;
b. early in
1801
near
Newport, Pembs.
He was originally an
Independent
but, about
1818
, when he was working for
W.
Griffiths
,
minister
of
Tabor
,
Dinas Cross
, he joined the
Baptists
and began to
preach
. He went to the
Blaen-y-waun
district to learn
boot-making
but when the church there discovered his talent it sent him for a year to the school kept by
William
Owen
(
1789
-
1841
) (q.v.)
at
Cardigan
. He then spent two years at
Abergavenny College
. Towards the end of
1824
he received a call to
Holyhead
and was ordained
18 April 1825
— the first
Baptist
to be ordained in
Anglesey
; there, he was unequalled except by
Christmas
Evans
. He was, says
Robert
Jones
(
1806
-
1896
) (q.v.)
of
Llanllyfni
, as able as
John
Elias
, but not as lucid. He joined issue with other able men in
Y Bedyddiwr
, wrote an elegy, and a
Cofiant
in memory of
Robert
Williams
of
Ruthin
, and published
Cofiant a Gweithiau Christmas Evans
, the profits of which he made over to
Evans
's widow. His masterpiece, however, was
Cysondeb y Ffydd
(672 pages). He d. of a
stroke
,
15 Sept. 1872
.
Bibliography:
-
W. Price
,
Cofiant y diweddar Barch. W. Morgan, D. D.,
Caergybi
, Llanerchymedd, 1888
;
-
T. Richards
,
Trafodion Cymdeithas Hanes Bedyddwyr
Cymru
,
1937
.
Author:
Rev. William Joseph Rhys, (1880-1967), Gelli, Rhondda / Treherbert
