SAUNDERS
,
THOMAS
(
1732
-
1790
),
Independent minister
;
nothing is known of his origins, but he seems to have been a native of
Pontypool
— even when an ordained
minister
, he kept on living at
Pontypool
and acting as an
overseer
at
Hanbury's works
. It seems certain that he came to religion through the
Methodist revival
;
Philip
David
(q.v.)
accuses him of ‘
preaching like the
Methodists
, observing no order, but rambling
’ — and of inviting other quasi-Methodists ‘
to give a rant
’ in his pulpit at
Newport
(
Cofiadur
,
1935
, 37) — naturally, on the other hand,
Edmund
Jones
(q.v.)
speaks of him in the highest terms (
Trevecka Letter 2724
). At the end of
1769
,
Saunders
was appointed
pastor
of
Llanfaches
and of its branch in
Mill-street
,
Newport
; he had a congregation at
Machen
also. He d.
9 Jan. 1790
, ‘aged 58,’ and was buried near
Mill-street chapel
at
Newport
.
Bibliography:
-
Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru
, i, 56, 60;
- and other references given above.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
