PHILLIPS
,
HENRY
(
1719
-
1789
),
Baptist minister
;
b. at
Tre-lech, Carms.
, in
1719
. At 18 he was converted by
Howel
Harris
, went to
Llanddowror
to
Griffith
Jones
, and was afterwards
master of several of his circulating schools
; he was a communicant of
Howel
Davies
's (q.v.)
. Joining the
Baptists
at
Pen-y-garn, Mon.
, he was baptized (
1750
) by
Miles
Harry
(q.v.)
, and underwent training for the ministry at
Trosnant
, and then (
1751
) at
Bristol
. In
1752-3
he was
assistant-minister
of the ‘
Old Meeting
’ at
Wrexham
and also at
Nantwich
. From
1753 till 1756
he ministered (without pastoral charge) to churches in
southern England
. In
1758
he was ordained
pastor
at
Waterford
, removing thence in
1763
to
Back-lane
,
Dublin
. He was in
Wales
in
1765
(at
Pen-y-garn
), then for a short time at
Exeter
; but in
Feb. 1766
he was inducted at
Salisbury
, where he spent the rest of his life. He
kept a free school
there, in which large numbers of poor children were taught. But he also maintained his contacts with
Wales
, and it was through his hands that
John
Thornton
distributed hundreds of Welsh Bibles
. In
1762
there appeared a 24-page sixpenny pamphlet,
A Sketch of the Life and Character of the Reverend and Pious Griffith Jones
; when this was reprinted in
1777
in the
Gospel Magazine
, its author was revealed as ‘
H.P.
,
Sarum
,’
Phillips
was thus in one sense the first
biographer
of
Griffith
Jones
, but unfortunately the pamphlet is practically undiluted praise accompanied by very few
facts.
Phillips
also published a ‘letter,’ of which a
Welsh
version,
Y Dinasoedd Noddfa wedi eu priodoli i Grist
, was published with his consent in
1781
. He d. at
Salisbury
,
20 Aug. 1789
, and was buried in the
Baptist burial-ground
there.
Bibliography:
-
Joshua Thomas
,
A History of the Baptist Association in
Wales
, 1795
, 64, and
Hanes y Bedyddwyr ymhlith y Cymry
, 491-2;
-
Geiriadur Bywgraffyddol o Enwogion
Cymru
, ii, 389-90;
-
G. V. Price
,
The Old Meeting at Wrexham
;
-
Cambrian Bibliography
, Llanidloes, 1869
, 467, 607.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
