ROBERTS
,
JOHN
(
Minimus
;
1808
-
1880
),
Calvinistic Methodist minister, and author
;
second son of
Richard
Roberts
, a
ship's chandler
, of
Liverpool
. He became
elder
(
1827?
) of
Bedford Street C.M. church
, began to
preach
in
1830
, and was ordained in
1857
at the
Dolgellau Association
. He m., in
1849
,
Elizabeth
Milnes
, of
Oswestry
(d.
1865
). His youngest sister,
Ann
, became the second wife of the
Rev.
David
Charles
(
1803
-
1880
) (q.v.)
. While continuing in the
employ of sail shipping company
, he became, in
1840
, the unpaid
secretary
of the newly-formed
C.M. Foreign Missions Society
(see
Jones
,
Thomas
,
1810
-
1849
); from
1861
till his wife's death he lived near
Mold
. In
1866
his connection with the
C.M. Missions
was severed, and he removed to
Edinburgh
, as
secretary
of the ‘
Scottish Sabbath Observance Society
’. He d. there
6 Jan 1880
, and was buried in
S. James's cemetery
,
Liverpool
. A daughter survived him.
Minimus
wrote much for the C.M. periodicals
, e.g.
Y Traethodydd
and
Y Drysorfa
— he
edited
the latter in
1846
, and afterwards, jointly with
Roger
Edwards
(q.v.)
, till
1852
. With
Richard
Williams
(
1802
-
1842
) (q.v.)
he edited
Y Pregethwr
,
1835-8
. He collaborated with
John
Jones
(
1790
-
1855
) (q.v.
in App.) in a biography of
John
Elias
, and wrote two other biographies; he also
wrote hymns
, one of which, beginning ‘
Bywha dy waith …
’ which first appeared in
Y Drysorfa
in
1840
, is still sung.
Bibliography:
-
Y Drysorfa
,
1840 and 1880
;
-
Y Goleuad
,
17 Jan. 1880
;
-
J. Hughes Morris
,
Hanes Methodistiaeth Liverpool
,
Liverpool, 1929-1932
, i, and
The history of the Welsh Calvinistic
Methodists' foreign mission to the end of the year
1904
, 1910
;
-
John Roberts
,
Lizzi Milnes; a Memoir of a Beloved Wife,
with selections from her letters
, Edinburgh,
1876
(Edinburgh,
1876
);
-
J. Thickens
,
Emynau a’u Hawduriaid
. [1945.]
(
1945
).
Author:
Derwyn Jones, M.A., Bangor / Colwyn Bay
