from THE HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN RADNORSHIRE. 1895,
John Jones, Baptist Minister at Llandrindod Wells
THE denomination of Nonconformists usually called Quakers,
or Friends, began in England about the middle of the
seventeenth century. George Fox is supposed to have been
the founder of this denomination of Christians. The
justly celebrated W. Penn and R. Barclay gave to the
denomination a more regular form.
Dr. Rees says ‘The first Quaker in Wales was Thomas
Holmes, but nothing more is known of him than that
he was very active in disseminating his principles, and that
he had been several times imprisoned. In a short time
he found himself surrounded by a large number of fellow-
labourers, such as John ap John, of Wrexham; Francis
Gauler; Richard Davies, of Welshpool; Charles and Thomas
Loyd, of Delobrau, near Llanfyllin, and several others of less
note. These people traversed the country with remarkable
diligence, and succeeded in making their peculiar views so
generally known that by the end of the year 1660 there was
scarcely a locality in any Welsh county, excepting Carnarvon
and Anglesea,
without adherents to their sect.’ The Quakers, or Friends,
were from the beginning most pro-nounced and determined Nonconformists. On this account
they had their full share of persecution and suffering.
After the restoration of Charles II to the throne there were
forty Quakers in Cardiff Gaol at the same time, and twenty
in the gaols of the counties of Denbigh and Flint. Large
numbers of Quakers were imprisoned in Merionethshire,
and 650 of their cattle seized. The prison at Montgomery
was so full of ‘Independents, Baptists, and Quakers, that
the gaoler was obliged to put some of them in the upper
garrets. Some of the Quakers of those times were intolerant
themselves; they tried to force their religious opinions
and practices on others. They made it a point to disturb
the religious services of their neighbours by standing up,
sometimes in the midst of the sermon, to contradict the
preacher; and even during the celebration of the Lord’s
Supper they annoyed the communicants by rising one after
another to speak.’ This was mistaken zeal. The Apostles
themselves did not disturb the worshippers in the Jewish
synagogues. At one time there were many Quakers in
Radnorshire.
The Quakers in this county, in common
with their brethren in the other counties of Wa1es and in
England, had their full share of persecution. Mr. B. J. Elsmere
has kindly furnished me with the following account of the
Friends in Radnorshire. I give the substance of a letter
which I received from Mr. Elsmere. He says: ‘I am sorry
that we’ (the Friends) ‘have no written history that I know
of dealing with this county alone, but it is often referred to
in the journals of George Fox, Richard Davies, John Griffith,
Besse’s "Sufferings of the Friends," and many others. The
deeds of the Pales Meeting-House date back to 1657.
The said deeds are in a safe at Leominster, also other deeds
of other property in the county, several of which are grave-
yards either sold or lost to the Society by not being looked
after. The graveyard at Llanyre, according to the Register
of Friends, has 120 graves in it, but now nothing is to be
seen of it but the mark of the old fence. George Fox first
visited the county in that year’ (1657), ‘but the first Welsh
Friend was convinced in 1654, John ap John by name, who
was before a Congregational minister. He became an
earnest minister among the Friends in Wales. George Fox
visited Radnorshire three times.
In 1660 the meetings
were broken up by soldiers armed with swords. One Friend
had his head cut open. In the year 1683, at the monthly
meetings held at Pales, many of the Friends were driven
like a flock of sheep over the hills to Knighton and im-
prisoned. One Morgan Watkin, a Radnorshire man, was
an itinerant preacher among the Friends. He was im-
prisoned in London for preaching the Gospel among the
Friends. He was kept in prison until he died. Different
Friends had their property sold for tithes and Easter offer-
ings which they refused to pay. Others were heavily fined
for not attending Divine worship in the parish churches.
Friends’ meetings were held in many farmhouses. Meetings
were held at Radnor, Pales, Llanyre, Llandewy, Rhayader,
Talcoed, Glascwm, Newchurch, Maesyrhelem,’ and other
places.
The Friends must at that time have been numerous
in Radnorshire and in other parts of Wales. How they
declined and became so few I know not. For the last
seventy years there was no regular meeting-house of the
Friends in Radnorshire except the Pales, in the parish of
Llandegley. Formerly two highly-respectable families
named Edwards lived at Walton, in the parish of Old
Radnor. They were members of the Society of Friends.
They used to worship in a small building standing by the
roadside in the village of Walton. There are none of the
family left in the neighbourhood. Formerly only a very few
persons attended Divine worship in the Pales meeting-house.
The worship was conducted in the quiet, silent way peculiar
to the Friends of olden times. Some years ago ministers
belonging to the Society of Friends came from a distance
and held mission services at Pales and at Penybont. Those
services, repeated year after year, led to a revival and enlarge-
ment of the cause of the Friends in the neighbourhood.
Some members of the Calvinistic Methodist church at
Penybont left that church and united with the Friends. A
Friends’ meeting-house has been erected near Penybont.
Friends’ meetings are held in the Lower Assembly Room at
Llandrindod Wells. A new iron meeting-house for the
Friends has been erected near their graveyard in the parish
of Llanyre. Previous to the erection of the Friends’ chapel
near Penybont, they held meetings for several years in the
iron room adjoining the Severn Arms Hotel.
The present
generation of Friends in Radnorshire conduct their meetings
pretty much in the same way as the Primitive Methodists
do. This change in their method of conducting Divine
worship has probably been conducive to the revival and en-
largement of the Friends’ cause. Mr. B. J. Elsmere, in a
lecture which he delivered at the opening of the new meeting-
house in Llanyre, said that some of the graveyards belong-
ing to the Friends were sold to the Baptists. I am not
aware of the Baptists having purchased any graveyards
belonging to the Friends. After I wrote the history of the
Baptist Church at Maesyrhelem, I found the following
account in the ‘History of Radnorshire,’ by the late Rev.
J. Williams, M.A.: ‘About one mile north-west from Crye-
hallt, the family seat of Evan Stephens, Esq., stands a con-
venticle belonging to the religious denomination of Baptists,
called the New Chapel, erected in the year 1805, on the
spot where formerly the Society of Friends, or Quakers, had
a meeting-house and burial-ground attached. On the
decline of the latter Society, and the remaining members of
which having abandoned the place, the former took pos-
session of the ground, and founded thereon a neat chapel,
which in 1814 was endowed by Mr. Williams, of Maesy-
rhelem, in this parish, with several acres of excellent meadow-
land on the bank of the river Ithon.’ It is strange that
there is nothing said in the account given me of the origin
of the Baptist cause at Maesyrhelem of the Society of
Friends having had a chapel and burial-ground there. The
statement that the Baptists took possession of the burial-
ground which had belonged to the Society of Friends
cannot be correct. The site for the chapel and the burial-
ground was given by Mr. Williams, of Maesyrhelem. If
this ground once belonged to the Society of Friends, it must
have come into Mr. Williams’ possession by purchase or
heirship.
Dr. Rees, in his ‘History of Nonconformity in Wales,’
says: ‘The Society of Friends is now the smallest of all the
Nonconforming denominations in Wales.’ A respected
Friend has favoured the author with the following state-
ment: ‘The meetings of the Society of Friends in Wales
are five. The number of members 127, besides a few in
scattered places; the total would certainly be under 150.
They are mostly located in Radnorshire and Glamorgan-
shire.’ Dr. Rees says: ‘These good people in the last half
of the seventeenth century and in the first half of the
eighteenth were numerous in Wales, and all of them
suffered the most cruel persecutions; but by their suffering
and philanthropic activity they did as much, if not more,
than all the other denominations to secure to the inhabi-
tants of Wales the liberty and the privileges which we now
enjoy. Small as their number now is, there are still among
them some of the most excellent characters, worthy of their
eminently good forefathers.’ This account was written
before the recent increase of Friends in Radnorshire.