WILLIAM
,
THOMAS
(
1717
-
1765
),
Methodist exhorter and later Independent minister
;
b.
1717
, son of the
miller
of
Corrwg mill
,
Eglwysilan, Glam.
He came to religion under the ministry of
Howel
Harris
,
c. 1738
. He was a
schoolmaster in the circulating schools
, began to
exhort
among the
Methodists
, and in
1743
was appointed
superintendent of the societies
in
Glamorgan
. He was one of those who, in
1745
, conveyed the message concerning the ordination of exhorters to the Association; he and his friend,
William
Edwards
(
1719
-
1789
) (q.v.)
, were given some kind of ordination by the
Groes-wen society
. He kept up his connection with
Methodism
, and was
Howel
Harris
's right hand man in the early years of the split between him and
Daniel
Rowland
. In
1752
he was expelled from
Harris
's party and he and the
Groes-wen society
seceded and joined the
Independents
. He d. while he was on a preaching tour in the
Rhondda valley
,
16 Dec. 1765
, and was buried in
Cymer
churchyard.
Bibliography:
-
Y Tadau Methodistaidd
, and , 1895
, i, 228;
-
Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru
, and , 1871–5, 1891 (five
volumes)
, ii, 375-80;
-
T. Thomas
,
Hanes Ymneilltuaeth Gynnar yn y Watford
, 12;
-
Cylchgrawn Cymdeithas Hanes y Methodistiaid CalfinaiddJournal of
the Historical Society of the Presbyterian Church in Wales
, 1916 ff. Also entitled
, iv, 41; vi, 14; xxi, 109;
-
R. Bennett
,
Methodistiaeth Trefaldwyn Uchaf, 1738–1852
, 1929
, 217;
-
Cardiff Manuscripts
4877.
Author:
Rev. Gomer Morgan Roberts, M.A., (1904-93), Pont-rhyd-y-fen / St
Dogmael's / Llandybïe.
