Thomas Lewis Memoir Part 2a

His minsterial labours

The ministers of the gospel will be accepted of God, if faithful, whatever may be the result of their labours; whether seen in the salvation, or the augmented condemnation of those who hear them. They are a sweet savour to God. Their acceptance with him depends not on the measure of their success; but on their fidelity.

Abergavenny is the most beautifully situated town in the whole county of Monmouth. It is surrounded by hills and mountains in which are united the witnesses of wildness and fertility. Between these also are spread out in all the varied beauty and luxuriance of a paradise, extensive and undulated plains richly productive of whatever is necessary both for the support of man and that of those creatures which the “Lord of all” has sent to minister to his comforts. For several ages past had this old town being blessed not only with the smiles of providence but also with the ministry of the gospel of Christ but unhappily not without bitter controversies.

It appears that there were many Baptists in and about the town of Abergavenny prior to the year 1652; but it was then they were formed into a church and the Lord blessed them with many converts for about 60 were added to their number in a little more than one year. In 1653 the Baptist Association was held there and the assembly at the time was truly respected. This with other things chafed some of those who were for infant sprinkling and the result was that a public discussion was held in Saint Marys in the town between John Tombes BD Baptist, Henry Vaughn MA and John Cragig MA paedobaptists. This dispute, though in itself not to be desired, turned out to advantage as the people began to read and think for themselves which they seldom did before and the end was that upwards of 40 were baptised and added to the church that year but the present Welsh Baptist Chapel situated in Tudor Street wass erected in 1769 (vid Hanes y Bedyddwyr Joshua Thomas p 170 also his History of the Association p 10 Mr White's Guide p 31).

Beside the Baptists there was also a very respectable Independent church in the town and it continues to the present day. Whitefield and Wesley also visited the town upon their errands of mercy and were the means of doing good to those who were ready to perish. In the Journal of Wesley the three visits to this place are recorded. In Volume 1, page 222 the first is thus mentioned

“Monday Sept 15, 1739 I came to Abergavenny. I felt in myself a strong aversion to preaching here. However, I went to Mr N (the person in whose ground Mr Whitfield preached) to desire the use of it. He said “with all his heart if the minister was not willing to let me have the church” after whose refusal (for I wrote a line to him immediately) he invited me to his house. About a thousand people stood patiently though the frost was sharp, it being after sunset) while from Acts 28:22 I simply described the plain old religion of the Church of England which is now almost everywhere spoken against under the name of Methodism. An hour after I explained it a little more fully in a neighbouring house, showing how God had exalted Jesus to be a Prince and Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins. His second visit was in 1741, his third in 1746 and his fourth, but then he made no stay, was in 1748. A regularly constituted society of Wesleyans, however, was not formed until the year 1804.

Such is a bird's eye view of the religious state of Abergavenny when Mr Thomas settled in 1807 and there the all-wise God had appointed that he should live and work and die.

Under April 19, 1807, we have the following record in Mr Thomas's book “This day five of us formed into a church when two were baptised (by Micah Thomas) viz Lewis Moses and Hannah Price. The names of the five were Mrs Thomas, Mr and Mrs Wyke, Mrs Harris, Govilon, and Mrs Garrett a very pious old lady living in the town. (Hanes Y Bedyddwr by David Jones p 759). The success that began to follow Mr Thomas's labours made some who held different views of baptism rather uneasy if not somewhat alarmed. The pastor of The Independent church, Mr Harrison, writes Mr Micah Thomas, in a good and humorous strain, “as soon as the water began to be moved was much stirred and buckled on the armour and gave public notice that on a given day and hour he would preach a sermon on what he called infant baptism but what we, thinking that every practice should be described by language true and appropriate, style infant sprinkling or pouring. As the good man had it seems wittingly for our common benefit fixed a time for his demonstration that did not clash with that of our public worship many of us went to hear the discourse. Probably some of us worthy co-adjutors imagined that the achievement would be so overwhelming in argument and scripture truth that the little Baptist interest then struggling with birth would be forever submerged but strange as it may appear, it experienced no damage whatever. Nay, but the contrary happened to be the result. For the consequence was that the before unthinking were led to reflect, the dim-sighted to clearly see and the wavering to decide. It seldom, if ever, fails to serve the cause of truth - the cause of immersion administered to believers - when our good Brethren begin to preach up infant sprinkling. It was wisely said on the subject by the late excellent Mr Lowell of Bristol “Silence is our fort”. Such policy might have been serviceable to the same cause here 37 years ago. (This is written in the Memoir of Reverend John Jones of Blakeney, 1844). But our friends thought differently and the effect was that several of the brethren became determined to be buried with Christ in baptism. Amongst them was the subject of this obituary in company with three score of his previously infant offspring sprinkling associates was on the 12th day of June 1808 immersed by the writer and the same day received into the communion of the church. But not before, it should be observed, being offered to be baptised and continue their fellowship with the Independent church. This event was the commencement of a sentimental revolution here in the antecedently tranquil empire of infant sprinkling. Even Mrs Jones herself, Mr Jones' mother, her elder daughter and her maid servant, her whole household with the exception of a younger daughter about 12 years of age or more, at length became deeply united, with this one exception, not illusioned by inadequate age the writer had the pleasure of baptising Lydia, for that was Mrs Jones' name and her household. Here then it is in evidence that a Lydia and her household maybe baptised and yet no unconscious infant being in the family. And who dares affirm that the Thyatirian Lydia and her household were otherwise circumstanced.” (Baptist Magazine 1844 p 394).

W Nefydd Lewis on Micah Thomas

 LIFE AND MINISTRY OF REV. MICAH THOMAS

1776-1853

Not the least remarkable feature in the history of Bristol College is the help which it has rendered to similar institutions by furnishing to them men capable of discharging tutorial duties, and who have done so with conspicuous efficiency and usefulness. Among such must be assigned a most honourable place to the Rev Micah Thomas, the founder and first president of the Baptist College now located at Pontypool. The history of this distinguished minister and educator during the earlier years of his life may be compressed into half a dozen sentences.

He was born in the parish of Whitstone, Monmouthshire, on the 19th of February, 1776. His parents were of the yeoman class. When he was seventeen years of age he was baptised at Glascoed, and subsequently united with the church at Pen-y-garn, near Pontypool. About a year and a half afterwards he began to preach, and was much engaged in supplying the neighbouring churches until in his twenty-third year, he entered the College, over which Dr. Ryland was presiding with so much ability and success.

In 1802 he received an invitation from the church at Ryeford, in the county of Hereford, which he accepted. Here he remained for several years, honoured and useful. While at Ryeford Mr Thomas was accustomed to visit friends of his at Abergavenny, whose ancestors had been among the most influential and honoured members of the Baptist community, and whose descendants have maintained their principles and illustrated their virtues. To these, and especially to a lady among them, Mrs John Harris, of Govilon, Mr Thomas seems to have suggested the idea of establishing a theological college. At this time there was no Baptist college in Wales, Trosnant Academy, founded 1732, having been closed in 1770, and no Baptist church at Abergavenny. These friends, and particularly the lady mentioned, entered very heartily into the views of Mr Thomas and the result was that in 1817 he removed to Abergavenny to undertake the pastorate of a church yet to be formed and the presidency of a college yet to be established.

Such a step required both courage and faith in God; for there were series obstacles to be met and overcome, not the least of these being the prejudice which prevailed in Wales at that time, as it had previously done in England, and did still more or less against an educated ministry. Mr Thomas, however, had through both good report and evil report pursued the even tenor of his way, assured that that way was the way of duty and of effective service for God. The institution, humble as was its origin, and unpretending as was its appearance, grew and prospered. until it became a fountain of light and influence to the Welsh people. For thirty years its founder presided over it, exercising a powerful and beneficent influence upon the ministry and churches of the Principality. At the end of that period it removed to what was considered a more eligible situation for it at Pontypool. The church which Thomas founded at Abergavenny originally consisted of six members, including the pastor and his wife. For several years they had no place of worship which they could call their own, but at length, in 1816. they were enabled to erect a chapel, which was frequently, during Mr Thomas's ministry, enlarged. To the welfare of the people whom he gathered about him there, including the young on in the College, he devoted all his life and powers. and many of those who waited upon his ministry will be his glory and joy at the coming of the Lord.

He died on the 28th of November, 1853, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, the fifty-sixth of his ministry, and the forty-seventh of his pastorate at Abergavenny. On the 5th of December his remains were committed to the earth in the burial-ground attached to the chapel in which for so many years he had preached the gospel and on the following Sunday the Rev. J. Jenkyn Brown at that time at Reading (a fellow student at Bristol) preached a funeral sermon to a crowded and deeply-affected congregation.

Mr Thomas was not a great author. He wrote the circular letter on one occasion for the Association he was connected with when at Ryeford, on Religious education as a Duty incumbent on Parents, he wrote also several of the annual epistles of the South Wales and Monmouthshire Associations. Engaging in the Calvinistic controversy to the extent of preaching on the subject of Salvation of Sovereign Grace, he was requested by his people to print it, and complied. On the baptismal controversy he published two sermons, one in 1841, and the other in 1842. In 1843 he published a message he had addressed to the students of the college he had founded.

His chief claim to remembrance and honour from the body to which he belonged is based upon the fact that he was the pioneer of ministerial education among the Welsh Baptists, founding the second oldest of our British Baptist colleges, and being for a lengthened period its founder and leader.

This is the text of a typed manuscript in the National Libraey of Wales that was prepared for Faithful Men or Memorials of Bristol Baptist College and some of its distinguished Alumni by Stephen Albert Swaine

Thomas Lewis Memoir Part 1e (last)

Tuesday 22nd, towards evening, he was attacked with a bilious fever. Until the afternoon, he was as usual. He had been in town in the morning on business and, around noon, I spent an hour or two in his company as usual. I found him as free and cheerful as ever. But as night came on, he took sick and his pain became gradually worse through to the end. He suffered tranquilly and submissively, albeit realising that he would never again come down. And when alone he was heard praying "O Lord, thou hast supported me in affliction many times, support me now". On one of these days, he said to his beloved partner, the one he was about to leave to the care of a kind providence, that he wished that there should be nothing written on his gravestone but his name, his age, his time of death, together with that short passage relating to his always favourite theme, the resurrection, And I will raise him up at the last day. It can be said of Mr Thomas, as has been said of the learned Dr Knapp, of Halle, that he requested, with that genuine modesty for which he was always distinguished, that there should be nothing said in the public notices of his death to his honour and that it shouold only be witnessed of him that he lived by faith in the words I know that my Redeemer lives.

Monday 28th, between four and five O'Clock in the afternoon, his happy soul departed in peace and entered into the eternal presence where there is fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore. The following Monday, that is the fifth of December, was a solemn day. A large number of friends, besides those who had been invited, met before the house to testify their love and attachment to the departed. The procession was formed two and two, and foremosr was the "old vicar", who, though a clergyman, entered the Baptist Chapel, attended the service, and was seen, an old man of 85, at the grave of his departed friend. They were real friends and had spent nearly half a century together in the same town. I have never before attended a funeral where there was to be witnessed so much real grief. Everything seemed to testify to the high esteem that Micah Thomas knew. By his death a loss was sustained that could not easily be repaired. He died in the 75th  year og his age, the 56th year of his ministry and the 47th of his pastorate in the town of Abergavenny. His memory is fragrant.

Three verses follow to end the article.

Thomas Lewis Memoir Part 1d

After several years of much labour and perseverance, attended with their certain - though often apparently dilatory - reward, Mr Thomas was called to suffer most acutely both in body and in mind. In 1827, a painful division took place in his church which resulted in the formation of a second Baptist church in the town, one that continues to this day. And in the following year he had to undergo another kind of suffering which was not less tolerable. Mr Thomas wrote of it like this "From the 18th of Feby till the 22nd of March I was from home in London undergoing a great & severe operation, viz, the removal of a Tumour weighing Six Pounds & one ounce from my left knee". When Mr Thomas returned to his much loved work and people, he did so with a deeper sense of the mortality of man than ever, as well as with a heart full of thankfulness - as appears from the texts he preached from at the time. See 1 Corinthians 15:31 and Psalm 92:1, 2.

In 1836, Mr Thomas's connection with the college came to a close, mainly because of his health which had become so precarious as to prove a serious inconvenience.

In 1845, under June 1, after preaching from 1 Peter 2:24, Mr Thomas writes "This was the last sermon preached for fifteen weeks, the longest time without preaching in 43 years. The most dire attack and scene of personal affliction prevented my engaging in my long accustomed work for so many weeks. My recovery was the wonder of all around me. Bless the Lord, O my soul! Psalm 103:1-5." And at the end of the same year he notes "Thus ends another in the summer of which the writer was wonderfully restored to health." It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not Lam 3:22.

Mr Thomas' final years were spent in comparative privacy. In 1843, however, he preached the annual sermon in connection with the college where he had been president; and in 1846 he did the same on behalf of the college where he had been a student. He spent the evening of his life in the serving of his own flock; and in the very midst of his work, and with unimpaired mental abilities he was taken to his reward. Only one Sabbath intervened between his occupancy of the pulpit and his departure, and on the Monday evening preceding hsifatal attack he led the devotions of his people in their socil meeting for prayer.

What an unusually solemn day it would have been on the 20th of November, 1853, for the worshippers in Frogmore Street, had they known that that Sunday was the last for them to see their beloved pastor, who had ministered to them in holy thinhs for nearly 47 years in their pulpit! Had some friendly angel gently whispered this much to them that morning - would not they have looked downcast! Solemn! Yea woukd they not have been all attention while the servant of God was addressing them for the lat time, as his feet stood on the edge of that river which he was about to cross?

Few, perhaps if any, thought, when he read his text that  evening, that that was the las, and indeed there was something solemn and appropriate in the verse taken, Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Rev 3:11. Mr Thomas preached that evening with unusual energy and effect. The vigour of youth and the mellow piety of old age had met so that his soul was most happy in his work. That service being over, his work on earth was done!

Thomas Lewis Memoir Part 1c

In the year 1812 we meet with the following remark from Mr Thomas in his notebook - "For six weeks after the 10th of May I did not preach at all being much indisposed in my body. During this period the excellt. Mr. Fuller paid us a visit. He preached in our place May 31st at 11 o'clock, forenoon. His text was Ps. 86.17 Shew me a token for good."

June 1st, he preached in Trosnant at 2.30 pm from Acts 12.24; June 3rd, he preached at the Association at Hengoed from Isaiah 9.7 the last clause; June 4th, he preached at Zion Chapel Merthyr at 6 o'clock in the evening from John 3.35; June 7th, he preached in the Back-lane meeting house at Swansea at 3 o'clock from John 17.20, 21; June 8th, he preached at Carmarthen in the Tabernacle at 7 o'clock from Phil. 3.8; June 10th, he preached at the Association at Cwm Felin Monach (Cwmfelin Mynach) in Carmarthenshire from John 17.(20), 21. Afterwards he returned to Bristol. June 21st, returned to my work and preached in Abergavenny."

For many years Mr Thomas and the church met in the old building in Heol Tydur, which belongs to the Welsh Brthren of Llanwenarth, but with the increase of the church and the hearers growing, they had to look for a more spacious and convenient place. As a consequence they built a bigger place of worship; this one had a gallery and there was also a vestry and a burial ground at the back. The building stands at the bottom of Frogmore Street. The foundation stone was laid by Mr Thomas himself on July 6th, 1815. The building, an oblong square, measures 60 feet in length and in 36 feet in width and is big enough to take comfortably 500 or 600 people. A Sunday School was established at the same time and it still co-exists and co-operates with the church.

March 17, 1815, Mr Thomas preached his last sermon in the old building from Isaiah 53:10 and at the end of the service excitedly said this "I hope it is the prosperity of God's good pleasure in the hand of Christ that has rendered it needful for us to erect a larger place than this in which now for the last time we meet. The prophet says in the next chapter viz Isa 54.1-4 Enlarge your tent, etc. Permit me to run over just some of the circumstances with regard to the cause amongst us since the 8th of January, 1807, when I preached for the first time in this pulpit, down to the present time, that is 17th of March, 1816; and is it arrogant for me to say surely the pleasure of the Lord has prospered in the hand of Christ here? May it be made to prosper among our brethren that will continue to worship here from Sabbath to Sabbath. And may it increasingly prosper among us in the laceto which we go." March 24th, Mr Thomas preached his first sermon in the new building from 1 Kings 9:3; this was an appropriate text. And the Lord said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.

Thomas Lewis Memoir Part 1b

We are now come down so far in our journey of Mr Thomas's life to the point where we find him as a young man, 17 years old, under the yoke of Christ, which yoke he never threw off but faithfully and steadily bore, till his master called him to his reward. Soon after his baptism, the brotherhood in Penygarn began to think and talk of their young brother as one of a very promising character and they called him without delay to exercise his gifts in preaching the gospel of salvation. So when he was eighteen and a half years old Mr Thomas began to evangelise, first in the church where he was a member, and after this in other places, where he was requested to go. Having thus been employed for about three and a half years he "went to the Bristol Academy (under the suoerintendence of Rev John Ryland DD) on the 19th of the month of February, 1801." being that very day 23 years old. During the year and a half Mr Thomas was in Bristol, he was supported by the London Fund; and as every young man should he improved to his best advantagethe precious months allotted to him at that eminent seminary.  Dr Ryland and Mr Thomas were of congenial dispositons and though his stay there was brief, the friendly union formed between there ripened into a friendship terminated only by death of the former and which doubtless has been renewed by the removal of the latter to the society of the blessed.

When he was in Bristol Mr Thomas used often to preach in Ryeford, as well as other churches and preaching places around. It can be seen from his own notebook that he first preached there on Christmas Day 1801 and his text was Luke 18:10 For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost; and at 6 O'Clock he preached on Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgement, a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. The church at Ryeford, being very urgent in their solicitations, that Mr Thomas should settle among them as their pastor prevailed - undoubtedly to his disadvantage; he, therefore, after due deliberation, accepted the invitation in June, 1802. Mr Thomas was ordained, as we find it in his own papers, "was ordained as minister  of the Baptist C|hurch in Ryeford, near Ross, in the county of Hereford, September 29, 1802". The ordination involved the following - Mr J Watkins, Capel Y Ffin, began by reading 1 Timothy 3 then prayed; Mr H Williams of Cheltenham introduced the service (or gave the introductoy address) and received the confession of faith; Dr Ryland offered the ordination prayer and preached the charge from John 12:26; Mr J Rowland of Pershore preached to the church from Deuteronomy 1:38 Encourage him. Mr J Bradley of Coleford closed in prayer and the hymns were announced by Mr J Horlick of Ruardean.

January 21st "Mr Thomas was married to Sophia Wall of Ross" in whom he found an excellent partner over many years. Respecting here we have the following record in his own hand "Mrs Thomas was born August 9th, 1755; baptised at Ryeford August 27th, 1786 by the Rev. James Williams minister of the place and most tranquily died at five o'clock in the afternoon of April 21st 1829 aged 73 years, eight months, 12 days. She and I were married 24 years and three months to this day, Abergavenny, April 2nd, 1829."

He ministred with honou, diligence and success in Ryeford for about five years. January 4th, 1807, Mr Thomas preached his last sermon there from 2 Chronicles 15:2 and moved to the town of Abergavenny. There he commenced an English language church in the old meeting house in Heol Tydur and established the academy which has been productive of so much good in Wales. When Mr Thomas was in Ryeford, it seems, he was in the habit of visiting Abergavenny from time to time and made a most intimate acquaintance with the family of Mr John Harris of Govilon. Mr Harris, though not yet a member at this time was every ready and cheerful whenever he had opportunity, to do something for the cause of Jesus Christ. Mrs Harris, however, was a Baptist, an intelligent and superior woman. And it appears to me that this family under the hand of the great providence of heaven were the chief influence that drew Mr Thomas to Abergavenny. I also heard that Dr Ryland had some hand in the work; he had commended him to the attention of certain Baptists and Baptist ministers as a young man who possessed the ability and fitness to make a big impact on the country of his birth by training young preachers for the Baptist churches in the Principality. Whatever the case, Mr Thomas settled in Abergavenny in January, 1807, as a minister and a teacher.

Thomas Lewis Memoir Part 1a

In 1855 a five part memoir of Micah Thomas appeared in the Welsh language periodical Seren Gomer by Thomas Lewis Llaneddewi. It begins with an English epigram and then is in Welsh. I translated the Welsh to english then checked it with Lewis's own original English version. It begins

"'Biography is a feeble struggle with death.' Such was the remark of the late Dr. Hamilton, of Leeds. It is full of beauty and pathos, It pictures to the mind's eye a bereaved one, sensible of the loss he has sustained, bending over the grave of a valued friend, as if he would do battle with the last enemy and pluck from the ruthless aggressor's grasp all that can possibly be rescued .of the precious prize that he has been permitted to sieze."

Micah Thomas, son of Joshua and Mary Thomas, was born on the 19th of February in the year 1778 in the parish of Whits[t]on in the county of Monmouth. His parents were farmers and also were religious. His father, most likely his mother too, belonged to the Independents in New Inn and was considered to be a very superior man. When the subject of this memoir was still a child his parents moved from Whitson and established themselves for some time in a place by the name of Pentopyn, in the parish of Llandegveth and thence they moved to a farm called Tŷ-yn-y caeau (House in the fields) in Llangibi on the edge of Llanbadoc, and about a mile and a half from the place where the Baptist Chapel of the Glascoed meeting now stands. While he was still young, Mr Thomas was sent to the school which was kept by Rev Mr Morgan, inbcumbent of Tredunnock. He continued with him for many years. About this time we have something of the future man coming into view for is it said by one who was an acquaintance of his at this time that he was a very pious young man. "He had a great desire to read and study and to that purpose he sought and loved retirement." He was not afraid, sometimes, to reprimand his fellow-school pupils for their sins, speaking to them about the dreadful end of the ungodly and in after years Mr Thomas might have exclaimed

When I was yet a child, no childish play

To me was pleasing; all my mind was set

Serious to learn and know, and thence to do

What might be public good. Myself, I thought,

Born to that end, born to promote all truth,

All righteous things! MILTON

His retired habits, in the time under review, so interfered with his secular avocations, after his return from school, that it was determined upon, to prolong his period of education. In the opinion of his parents and friends they would probably never make a farmer of him and so they resolved to encourage him in his favourite pursuits. They sent him, therfore, to another school that was kept in Trosnant, near Pontypool, by Rev Evan Davies, curate in Trevethin. About this time Mr Thomas made a public confession of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Glasgoed was a branch of Penuel, Llangwm at this time but some of the members of Penygarn were in the area. These brothers would meet to praise God in a private home, near the spot where the Baptist Chapel is now. In this house there lived one Joseph Wroth with his wife and three daughters, and they were all Baptists. This family was, please note, descended (and the last to bear the name in this area) from the celebrated Mr Wroth, vicar of Llanfaches, who can be called the father of Nonconformity in Wales.

Mr Thomas (for what reason I have not been able to ascertain, nor is it of much importance) turned his face to Penygarn and not to Penuel. He gratefully records that he "was baptised on profession of repentance and faith in Glascoed on Whit Monday 1795 and at the age of 17 on the 19th of February; joined the Penygarn church, which was, at this time, under the pastoral care of the Rev. John Evans who shortly after went to America." ....

Memoir by John Jenkyn Brown Part 3

The life of a tutor and pastor in a secluded town furnishes few incidents for the biographer to record. Over the college which he was the means of founding he presided for nearly thirty years. It experienced many vicissitudes and discouragements but he faltered not in his course until in 1836 declining health led him to resign other hands that office which he had so long and worthily filled. In the course of his presidency upwards of eighty young men were under his instruction for the Christian ministry and not a few remain to attest their esteem and regard for the tutor and their affection for the man and the Christian.

The church which was formed on the removal of Mr Thomas to Abergavenny was truly a little one. It originally consisted only of four persons besides the pastor and his wife and for years they had no place of worship which they could call their own. The present chapel was erected in 1816 and subsequently enlarged and only a years prior to the pastor s death was improved. To this people the whole of his valuable life may be said had to been devoted. The early zeal and fire of manhood, the mature wisdom and culture of his developed powers and the mellow light and tenderness of age, all were consecrated to them. Every temptation to induce him to change station was steadfastly resisted. Many were those who were his glory and even on earth and it is not too much to hope that many who were of Jesus but secretly will be his of "crown of rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming."

The latter years of Mr Thomas's life were spent in comparative privacy. In 1843 he preached the annual sermon for the college of which he had been president and in 1846 he rendered the same service to the college of which he had been a student. In the service of his own flock the evening of his life was especially spent. In the midst of them as in the bosom of his family he loved to dwell. For no pulpit did he prepare with greater carefulness than for his own and among no people did he love to minister as to his own endeared flock. In the very midst of his work and with unimpaired mental powers he was taken to his reward. Only one sabbath intervened between his occupancy of his pulpit and his departure, and the evening preceding his fatal attack he led the devotions of his people in their social meeting for prayer. After a week's severe suffering he yielded his spirit into his Saviour's hands on the 28th of November 1853 in the seventy fifth year of his age, the fifty sixth of his ministry and the forty seventh of his pastorate in Abergavenny.

On the 5th of December his remains were committed to the grave in the burial ground adjoining the place of worship in which he had so ministered and on that occasion signs of sorrow were not confined to ministerial brethren or to the church of which he had been pastor but extended to the whole town. The Rev H Clarke AM of Monmouth read the scriptures and prayed; the Rev T Thomas of Pontypool delivered the address in the chapel and the Rev Thomas Jones of Chepstow spoke at the grave. On the following Sunday the Rev J J Brown of Reading preached to a deeply affected congregation, and many were unable to get admission into the chapel.

It is not the writer's intention to delineate at any length the character of the deceased. To those who had the pleasure of knowing him this is unnecessary and to others it perhaps may be of little advantage. There was one quality which pervaded the whole of his life and character - the strictest  conscientiousness and integrity. It extended from the minutest to the greatest acts in which he was engaged. It gave importance to the simplest duty and animated him in the discharge of the most weighty This quality especially marked his ministry. It was eminently distinguished by faithfulness and simplicity. He did not serve God with that which had cost him nothing. He did not come into the sanctuary with crude undigested rambling thoughts. Ample evidence remains to show with what care and thoughtfulness he prepared for the discharge of ministerial duties. The word of God in which he himself so much delighted and of the meaning of which he was so anxious to attain just views he no less carefully expounded to his hearers. Wide in the range of the subjects on which he discoursed; clear in the perception of the truths he meant to enunciate; precise and fervent in the utterance of his thoughts; out of the inexhaustible treasury he brought forth things new and old/ His views of divine truth neither cramped his appeals to the consciences of the unconverted nor his application of the promises and privileges of the gospel to the believer. In his pastoral relations wisdom and prudence were conspicuous. In patience, tenderness and candour, he ruled over the flock of God committed to his care.

As a man, he practised the truths which he taught. The qualities which marked his style of writing and speaking pre-eminently characterised his own mind as a Christian transparency and simplicity. He was an Israelite indeed in whom was no guile. Whatever differences of opinion might exist between him and any of his brethren, no one doubted the sincerity, integrity and unswerving honourableness of his character. It was one of the felicities of his long life that he survived prejudices which had been excited and was gathered to his fathers amid the love and esteem of all who knew him. He would be foremost in acknowledging and deploring his personal and official deficiencies but the writer would be unfaithful to his convictions if he did not record that there was a completeness of character about the deceased in the minor graces which adorn the Christian life that were blended with the principles which impart to it dignity and glory.

Mr Thomas sent but few of his productions to the press. He has embalmed with affectionate tenderness the memories of many of his Christian friends in the pages of the Baptist Magazine. For the Association with he was connected when at Ryeford he wrote the Circular Letter on Religious Education as a duty of Parents and for the South and Monmouthshire Associations wrote several of their annual epistles. In the heat of the Calvinistic controversy he delivered his sentiments in a sermon on Salvation of Sovereign Grace which was published at the request of the church. In 1841 and 1842 he published his discourses on the baptismal controversy and in 1843 he published the sermon addressed to students of the college of which he had been president.

"THEY THAT BE WISE SHALL SHINE AS THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE FIRMAMENT AND THEY THAT TURN MANY TO RIGHTEOUSNESS AS THE STARS FOR EVER AND EVER."

Memoir by John Jenkyn Brown Part 2

It is impossible at this distance of time to appreciate either the difficulties which he had to encounter or the influence which he has exercised. As the president of a college and as the pastor of a church he had serious obstacles to overcome. He was the pioneer of an educated ministry in Wales. It is not alone in the secluded valleys or on the bleak hills of the Principality that prejudices against a liberal education for the Christian ministry have been found. In England as well as in Wales there existed at that period the utmost indifference if not positive antagonism to learning as a qualification for the ministry. We know that apart from the spiritual and moral qualifications which the gospel demands no learning can avail but we know equally well that where these qualifications are found the value of a sound intellectual training is unspeakable. It was probably a sense of the early disadvantages under which he had laboured and a right appreciation of the value of those which he had enjoyed in Bristol College that led him to contemplate a similar institution for his native land. How highly he valued learning may be concluded from the manner in which he overcame obstacles which would have crushed weaker and less determined spirits from his mastering a language by no means the most facile and tractable so that few would have suspected that Welsh was his native tongue and English an acquired speech and from the conscientious care elaborate and fastidious perhaps to a fault with which he prepared for the discharge of his pastoral duties. It is no small honour to his enlightened and comprehensive views to the largeness of his heart and desires that he should have been the first to suggest and the first to preside over the second institution for training young men for the Christian ministry which the baptist denomination established in Great Britain. Through good report and through evil report he pursued the even tenor of his way. Amid misapprehension discouragement and opposition he was faithful to his trust. Sustained and cheered by the love and fidelity of those who understood and appreciated him he was unmoved by prejudice and opposition. Humble in its origin, slow in its growth, unpretending in its appearance that institution has been a fountain of light and influence to the Welsh people. It is not very easy to estimate the influence which Mr Thomas thus exercised upon the ministry in the Principality. Many doubtless never caught his spirit or reflected his mind. They could neither sympathize with his intellect nor with his heart. The one was too massive and elevated the other too large and catholic for them to comprehend. But there were not a few who did sympathize with him and who reflected in other localities and in milder beams the light which he had shed

It was not simply as a tutor nor merely in the discharge of his duties as a pastor at home that the influence of Mr Thomas was felt. In his general ministry he was eminently distinguished for the maintenance and propagation of and just views of divine truth. The period when he entered upon his ministerial studies in Bristol College is in the annals of religion and especially in the history of the baptist denomination. There existed in close intimacy and in loving action a body and whose names will be had in everlasting remembrance Ryland and Hall and Fuller and their fellow labourers had given an impulse to practical godliness which it had not received since the early days of Wesley and Whitefield. The writings of some, the tuition of others and the preaching of all had tended to awaken the church to a sense of its responsibility and duty. The Baptist Mission to the heathen had just been established and in its reflex influence began to act upon the churches at home. Into the spirit of these eminent men Mr Thomas fully drank. The comprehensive views which they held of the great doctrines of the gospel were embraced with singular clearness and preached with unfaltering confidence by him. While holding as fully and firmly as any man to what are generally recognized as the doctrines of grace he did not hesitate to insist with all solemnity upon the responsibilities and obligations of men. In his mind there was no contrariety between the duty of man and the grace of God. While he preached Christ as the only foundation of human faith and hope he did so "Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that he might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus". He did not permit human theories to cramp his free utterance of the gospel message. The fullest and freest invitations of mercy to sinners were consistent in his theology with the highest conceptions of divine sovereignty and the purest views of the graciousness of salvation. With these views matured by a comprehensive and most conscientious study of the sacred oracles he entered upon his duties as tutor and pastor at Abergavenny. It is unnecessary to enter into the controversies which arose on these points and which greatly disturbed his peace but the writer would be wanting in his duty to the departed and in fidelity to the living and in the unspeakable gratitude we owe to the pioneers of free thought and free speech did he not advert to this phase of his life and influence. He broke down the human trammels that bound the free utterance of Christ's message. He cast in a leaven of truth which has well nigh leavened the whole lump. Gradually and silently with ebbs as well as flows but as certainly progressive as the motion of the tides his views have pervaded nearly the whole of South Wales. Where there has been no conscious renunciation of old sentiments and no avowed and formal adoption of new, there has been a silent though perhaps unconscious modification of those long held. It was at the close of his labours as president of the college that he could gratefully record that "both teachers and the taught began freely to breathe the universally benign atmosphere of that blessed economy which is alike and without difference good tidings of great joy to all people; on earth peace and good will toward men". He has laboured, others have entered into his labours. "With a great price" he purchased his freedom others have been "born free" through his fidelity labours and sacrifices.

Memoir by John Jenkyn Brown Part 1

Following his death in 1853, the following year a memoir by John Jenkyn Brown (d 1907) appeared in The October edition of The Baptist Magazine.

MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. MICAH THOMAS, OF ABERGAVENNY.

BY THE REV. JOHN JENKYN BROWN.

It is natural that we should hold in grateful remembrance the benefactors of our race. Almost every city has some son whom it delights to honour and every country some patriot whose life and actions it loves to record. The annals of the Christian church present us with a cloud of witnesses whose examples constitute a rich heritage and in whose steps we are to follow. The long period over which his ministrations extended, the varied and important services which he rendered and the wide and lasting influence which he exercised over the prosperity of the baptist denomination in South Wales entitle the late Rev Micah Thomas to an honoured and affectionate place in the memory of the church of Christ.

The subject of this brief sketch born in the parish of Whitstone in the county of Monmouth on the 19th February 1778. His parents were of the class called yeomen. Of his early life but few particulars have been preserved; and his history during the first twenty-three years may be compressed into a few sentences It would appear that in the town of Usk and in the neighbouring hamlet of Glascoed there were many who held baptist sentiments and among these scattered followers of the Saviour he seems to have first experienced the power of divine truth. He himself gratefully records that when he was seventeen years of age he was baptized at the Glascoed church and subsequently united in fellowship with the church at Penygarn near Pontypool. In about a year and a half afterwards he was called upon to exercise his gifts as a minister and was much engaged in preaching in the neighbouring churches.

In his twenty third year he entered Bristol College then under the presidency of Dr Ryland. The tutor and student were of congenial dispositions and though his stay in college was but short the intimacy there formed ripened into a friendship which terminated only by the death of the former and which doubtless has been renewed by the removal of the latter to the society of the blessed.

While at Bristol College Mr Thomas accepted an invitation to the pastoral office at Ryeford in the county of Hereford. In September 1802 the relation thus entered into was recognised by a public service on which occasion Dr Ryland delivered the charge to the pastor from John xii 26. In this place he laboured with honour and success for six years whence in 1807 he removed to Abergavenny.

This town situated in one of most lovely valleys in Monmouthshire, watered by the crystal stream of the Usk and surrounded by the most striking and picturesque hills, Thomas was wont to visit when sustaining the office of pastor at Ryeford. In this neighbourhood resided a family, whose ancestors had been among the most influential and honoured in the baptist community and whose names are still fragrant among the churches, and whose descendants remain true to their principles and illustrate their virtues. Into this congenial circle Thomas was introduced and in Mrs John Harris of Govilon he found a kindred spirit. As women were ministers to the Redeemer and were fellow helpers to Paul so this Christian lady exercised not a little influence upon the life and labours of our departed friend. At this period there was no baptist church at Abergavenny though there was preaching in the Welsh language and occasionally in English in connection with the church at Llanwenarth. Mr and Mrs Harris appear often to have communed on the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom; to her he seems have suggested the idea of a college and into his views she most heartily and zealously entered. The result was that he removed to Abergavenny to undertake the pastorate of a church yet to be formed and the presidency of a yet to be established college. The residence of Mr Thomas at Ryeford was a season of preparation and there is evidence that by giving himself to reading he availed himself of its advantages; but this town was his real field of labour and for forty-seven years with unwearied perseverance and constancy he pursued his course.

Biographical Material in Seren Gomer 1855

Baptist Chapel Llanddewi built 1827

I have recently realised that there is a series of biographical articles on Micah Thomas by Thomas Lewis Llanddewi (1823-1900) that appeared in the Welsh language publication Seren Gomer in 1855. It would seem that Lewis wrote it in English first but then translated it into Welsh. An English version exists then in the National Library but the Welsh version is available online. I am trying to read it, although my Welsh is rather poor. Lewis was born in Llandeilo'r-fan, Breconshire. In 1829 the family moved to Cwmdŵr where he was baptised in 1837. He worked in the woollen mills at Cwmdŵr and Llanwrtyd and began to preach in 1840 at Pantycelyn. He was trained for the ministry at Horeb (Cwmdŵr), at the school kept by Brutus near Pentre-bach, at D. Williams's (Independent) school at Tredwstan, and at an academy at Pontypool. He was minister at Llanddewi Rhydderch, 1848-1856; Llanelly, Breconshire,, 1856-1859; Jerusalem, Rhymney, 1860-1863; Penuel, Carmarthen, 1863-1874; Moriah, Risca, 1874-1880. He retired to Newport, Monmouthshire. He published Cofiant … Titus Lewis, Carmarthen; Cofiant … James Richard, Pontypridd; Ymddygiad y Feibl Gymdeithas Frytanaidd a Thramor at y Bedyddwyr; and Esboniad y Teulu. His Hunangofiant appeared in 1903 and his 'Hanes Eglwysi'r Bedyddwyr ym Mynwy hyd 1890,' still in manuscript, is kept in the county archives at Abercarn. He was a frequent contributor to the periodicals, and wrote articles for the Geiriadur Bywgraffyddol, the Geiriadur of Mathetes and Y Gwyddoniadur..

Ill health in 1845

In a note after the date June 1 1845, Thomas writes

“The last Sermon was the last I preached for 15 weeks, the longest interval from preaching for three & forty years. The most dire attack & scene of personal affliction prevented my engaging in my long accustomed work for so many weeks my recovery was the wonder of all around me. “Bless the Lord O my soul, etc. Ps ciii.1-5” At the end of the year he writes “Thus ends another in the Summer of which the writer was wonderfully restored to health. Lam III.22."

Operation in London 1828

In his preaching diary Thomas makes a note in 1828 that

“From the 18^th of Feby till the 22^nd of March I was from home in London undergoing a great & severe operatn, viz, the removal of a Tumour weighing Six Pounds & one ounce from my left knee”

Obituary Sophia Thomas nee Wall

The following obituary appeared in the Baptist Magazine in 1829

MRS. SOPHIA THOMAS.

On the 21st day of April, 1829, and in the 74th year of her age, died at Abergavenny, deeply and deservedly regretted, Mrs. Sophia Thomas, wife of the Rev. Micah Thomas, Baptist minister, and Tutor of the Academy in that town. This excellent woman was a native of Herefordshire, and had been an humble, unostentatious, and unblemished follower of the Redeemer during a pilgrimage of forty-three years. She was originally a valuable member of the church at Ryeford, near Ross, then under the pastoral care of the Rev. J. Williams, late of Kingstanley, Gloucestershire, by whom she was baptized; but in the commencement of the year 1807, she and her husband removed to Abergavenny, he being invited and having engaged to preside over the Institution then formed and established there, and still continuing beneath his direction and superintendence. Nor should it be concealed, but to her lasting honour recorded, that the very useful seminary just averted to, owes more to Mrs. Thomas's superior management and wise economy than can easily be calculated. She was truly one of that distinguished class, who fully exemplify the life and character of the virtuous woman, so sublimely delineated by Solomon. Besides, in her religious profession, lowliness of mind, genuine sincerity, sheer integrity, and strong practical attachment to the house and ordinances of God, were prominent features; whilst pompous show and rain parade, and that Pharisaical attracting of human observation and applause, which are the blemishes of numbers in the present day, never deteriorated from her intrinsic worth. And as she prosecuted, so she terminated her religious course; "quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord."

Her Bible, for many years, had been her daily, intimate, and endeared companion; and with peculiar interest did she peruse different publications, especially the justly admired works of that extraordinary man, Andrew Fuller. Though sometimes tears, indicative of doubt and apprehension, nevertheless of honest piety - snuffed at indeed by the high-notioned and presumptuous - suffused her cheeks, yet, with the illustrious Carey, she could say, "My hope is in his mercy." Leaning on this prop, the only one which even that pre-eminent saint and missionary seems able and disposed to claim, she, notwithstanding her previous fears, met the last enemy with enviable composure, and a countenance unusually and delightfully placid. Thus when the moment decreed by heaven arrived, she, amidst the sympathies of encompassing relations, yielded up the ghost, and softly "languished into life."

On the following Lord's day evening her lamented death was improved by the Rev. David Phillips of Caerleon, from Job. xix. 29. to a numerous audience.

An obscure website here appears to show that Sophia Wall (1755-1829) was born Sophia Pritchard and first married Levi Wall (1754-1800) in 1778. He died in 1800. The first marriage appears to have produced two girls, Mary and Ann.

Chronology

1778 19 February Born Whitson, Monmouthshire

c 1782-1792 (4-14) Farmer parents move from New Inn to Llangibby;

schools: Tredunnock then Trosnant, Pontypool

c 1792-1799 (14-21) Helping on family farm?

1795 (17) Baptised and joins Pen-y-garn Baptist church

1796 (18) Begins to preach

1800 (22) December enters Bristol Baptist Academy

1801 (23) Preaches first sermon at Ryeford, Herefordshire, on Christmas Day. Text: Luke 19:10.

1802 (24) Voted £5 by London Particular Baptist Itinerating Society to itinerate in Herefordshire

19 September Ordained Ryeford

c 1804 Marries first wife Sophia Wall of Ross, 23 years his senior!

1806 (28) Moves to Abergavenny

1807 (29) 1 January Academy takes first student Jonathan Davies. February two more arrive

19 April English Baptist church begins under him with four others. Two baptised in the river

1808 (30) 12 June Baptises 4 Independents including John Jones, later of Blakeney

1810 (32) 5-7 June S East Baptist Association Doleu, Radnorshire; preaches in English

1811 (33) 3 October publishes Salvation of Sovereign Grace; a Sermon preached at the Baptist Meeting-house, Abergavenny, September 22, 1811

1812 (34) June Visit of Andrew Fuller to South Wales

1813 (35) 6 January Leads opening services of Caerwent Baptist with students

April Preaches at opening of English Baptist, Merthyr, on Zechariah 13:7

1815 (37) His student Rees Davies from Aberdare becomes first pastor at Caerwent. 19 March Second wife's brother-in-law John Conway dies leaving 7 children 10 and under.

1816 (38) February 22 Church's Frogmore Street building registered and then opened

1817 (39) Baptises and receives into membership 8 people including the Conways

1819 (41) 30 August Death of John Harris, deacon and future father-in-law

1820 (42) Spring In London and Watford

1821 (43) Preaches at induction of former student W Johns at Caerwent

1822 (44) June Preaches for BMS, London on James 5:20

2 September Thomas Thomas becomes student, stays 2 years

1827 (49) John Jenkins criticises Thomas and Academy in letter to Cyfrinach y Bedyddwyr. Split in Abergavenny church leading to formation of Bethany

1828 (50) Undergoes operation on his knee in London

19 November Takes part in induction of E A Claypole to Ross Baptist

1829 (51) 21 April First wife Sophia dies (born 1755) Endorses Booth's book against paedobaptism. November House burgled by gang while preaching

1830 (52) 29 June Marries second wife Rachel Harris, daughter of John Harris, Govilon

1834 (56) 10 December 5 disgruntled students leave the Academy over differences

1835 (57) Rumblings continue through the year following the students leaving

1836 (58) Resigns from Academy, which tranfers to Pontypool under Thomas Thomas

1839 (61) Chartist riots

1840 (62) 22 January Writes to Lord Normanby pleading for the Chartists' lives

2 June Speaking at induction of Daniel Jones in Llanthewy

1841 (63) The Error and the Delusion and Destructive Tendency of Infant Sprinkling practised as Christian Baptism

1842 (64) Infant Christening Falsely called Baptism Explained in its nature and basis, chiefly in its Evil Workings

1843 (65) 5 July preaching at opening of new building Longtown, Herefordshire. The Important Claims of Ministerial and Pastoral Conduct addressed to the students at the annual meeting of Pontypool Baptist Theological Institution, July 26th, 1843.

1845 (67) Unable to preach for 15 weeks of the year - his longest lay off in 43 years

1846 (68) June 24 Preaches to students of his old college at service in Old King Street Chapel on 2 Corinthians 5:18-20

1848 (70) Deaths sisters-in-law: 9 March Mrs John Conway (nee Anne Harris)

2 May Elder sister Mrs Joseph Price (nee Catharine Harris)

1853 (75) 25 September Preaches last sermon 28 November Death after a few days illness

E W Price Evans in BQ 1951 02

The article continues

Inevitably Micah Thomas had his recurring difficulties, some of them trivial and others more serious. There were criticisms of his administration and discipline, but most serious were the charges against his doctrinal teaching.

It was declared, quite wrongly, that he was an "Arminian" than which few "heresies" were so obnoxious to contemporary Welsh Baptists - not least in some Monmouthshire churches. Matters came to a head in the early thirties, when several students left and were put under the care of WiIliam Jones, minister of Bethany, Cardiff. But Micah Thomas was not the man to be deterred by difficulties or to be diverted from his cherished ideals of truth and duty, and he continued his work. When he resigned, early in 1836, it was chiefly because of ill-health. In 1828 he had undergone an operation in London, and at last the exacting demands of his two offices of tutor and minister proved too much for his strength.

On March 9th, 1836, a committee, convened for consideration of the future of the Academy, decided to transfer to Pontypool and to house it in a worthy building. This was done, and on a scale and with a success which probably exceeded the best hopes of its original promoters. Nevertheless the subsequent achievements of Pontypool owed much to the hard pioneer work at Abergavenny.

Micah Thomas's portrait hangs in Cardiff Baptist College. It gives a clear indication of size and quality. PhysicaIly tall (six feet) and upright of carriage, carefully but not fastidiously dressed, his features (high forehead and firm mouth) reveal a man of alert intelligence and of resolute, even masterful, will. Obviously he had that "decision of character" which John Foster, whom he must have known, commended so eloquently in his once celebrated essay. What of his scholarship and of his ability as tutor and preacher? The evidence is too meagre for confident judgment. He had a competent working knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew and we are told that he was a man of "wide reading." His contemporaries adjudged him "an able theologian, a cultured and independent thinker, and an erudite and accurate scholar."

Theologically he was a qualified Calvinist, more or less of the school of Andrew Fuller. As a tutor, "he knew how to rule without taking on him to be severe." As a preacher, he was scriptural and expository, working out his theme with logical precision and thoroughness, but rather above the understanding of the rank and file of his congregation. His preaching is described as "excellent" and varied. As a pastor, he was kind and sympathetic, and generous to the poor and needy. Also, he could be forthright and straight, as occasion required.

He was a convinced Baptist, ever ready to affirm and defend our distinctive principles, but he was no sectarian. One of his close friends was William Powell, Vicar of St. Mary's, Abergavenny, who attended his funeral. Above all, he was a devout and earnest Christian, who sought the spread of the Gospel at home and overseas. He was a staunch promoter of the missionary interest.

Micah Thomas's political and social sympathies have been made evident in a letter which he wrote to the Marquis of Normanby after the Chartist riots. This letter is to be found among the Chartist papers in Newport Public Library, but it was published (for the first time) by Professor David Williams, Aberystwyth, in the Transactions of the Welsh Baptist Historical Society for 1950. The rioting at Newport on November 4th, 1839 had resulted in a sentence of death being passed at Monmouth Assizes upon John Frost and two other Chartist leaders. Micah Thomas pleaded strongly for mercy. His plea was partly, but not wholly, successful and Lord Normanby was at pains to infonn him that the government had decided to commute the sentence to one of transportation for life. This episode, whilst revealing his sensitiveness to social issues, serves also to suggest his standing and influence in the public life of Monmouthshire.

Micah Thomas was married twice - to Sophia Wall, of Ross, and then to Rachel Harries, daughter of John Harries of Govilon, son of Morgan Harries, minister of Blaenau Gwent.

So far as the present writer is aware, Micah Thomas published nothing except three sermons, copies of which are in Newport Public Library.

These are then listed and we will note them elsewhere. The article closes:

Micah Thomas, it seems to the present writer, would wish for no other office, and no other remembrance, than that of an ambassador for Christ, seeking. to exercise an entrusted ministry of reconciliation.

E W Price Evans in BQ 1951 01

This is part of an article that can be found here.

Too little is known of his boyhood and early manhood, but the following facts have been ascertained. He was born in the parish of Whitson, Monmouthshire, on February 19th, 1778, the son of a respected farmer who was a member of New Inn Independent Church on the outskirts of Pontypool. Later on, while he was still young, his parents removed to a farm in the parish of Llangibby and the boy was sent to a school at Tredunnock. He remained there for several years and it seems that he did so well and evinced such bookish tastes that he was sent on to another school, at Trosnant, Pontypool. The master of his first, and perhaps of his second, school was an Anglican clergyman.

When Micah Thomas was seventeen years of age (1795) he was baptised and received into membership at Penygarn Welsh Baptist Church, Pontypool, and in the following year he began to preach. We cannot but wish that we knew the workings of his mind at this decisive period of his life -just how and why he was led to become a Baptist and then a preacher of the Gospel. He was certainly a debtor to the piety and consideration of his parents. We are also ignorant of what he did for a livelihood after he left school and before he entered Bristol Baptist College. It is possible, even probable, that he helped his father on the farm.

Dr E J Tongue has kindly copied for the present writer the following extract from the Bristol Baptist College minutes for August 5th, 1801: "Mr Micah Thomas from the Church at Pen-y-garn was admitted into the Academy at Christmas (1800) under the patronage of the London Fund." He was there, under Dr John Ryland, for less than two years, but the College has good reason to rank him with the more distinguished of its alumni.

On September 29th, 1802, he was ordained to the ministry at Ryeford, near Ross, Herefordshire, where he had often preached during his College course. Bristol and Ryeford proved to be real, but as yet unrealised, preparations for his life work in Abergavenny.

The need of a better educated and trained ministry had long been apparent to some of the more judicious and far-seeing Welsh Baptists. In this matter the Presbyterians and Independents were ahead of us, and it was not until some time between 1732 and 1736 (say, 1734) that action was taken. An Academy was set up at Trosnant, Pontypool, by Miles Harry, minister of Penygarn, and his devout and capable brother-in-law, Mr. John Griffiths, who was the manager of Pontypool Iron Works. John Griffiths was probably the prime mover in the enterprise. This Academy did good service for several years and some of its students became eminent. Many of them proceeded to Bristol for further and fuller instruction under Bernard Foskett and, perhaps, Hugh Evans. Just when it was closed is extremely doubtful. The commonly accepted date is 1770, but it was probably much earlier. John Griffiths emigrated to America in 1759, and it is unlikely that it survived for more than a few years after his departure. Joshua Thomas, the Welsh Baptist historian, suggests 1761, and he estimates the number of students as twenty five in all. Another estimate is forty. Even so, Trosnant is to be remembered with no little gratitude. Among its students were Evan Jenkins, Wrexham (father of Dr. Joseph Jenkins, Walworth), Timothy Thomas, Aberduar, Dr. Thomas Llewelyn, London, Morgan Edwards, historian of American Baptists and one of the founders of Brown University, Rhode Island, and Benjamin Francis, Horsley.

Thereafter, until 1807, such Baptists as sought ministerial education mostly went to Bristol. They were drawn thither, presumably, not only by its educational standing, but by its proximity to Wales and by the Welsh sympathies of Hugh and Caleb Evans. But Welshmen at Bristol were apt to settle in England, and it was increasingly felt that Wales required a college of its own. "Undoubtedly the question was discussed by many at divers times and places," wrote the late Dr E K Jones, "but the first mention of doing something practical was at the house of John Harris, Abergavenny. Mrs. Harris was the daughter of Caleb Harris, once minister of Llanwenarth. She and her daughters, while talking the matter over, were joined by Mr Isaac Wyke, a surgeon ... Mr Wyke suggested an academy.

Another account credits Micah Thomas with making the suggestion to Mrs Harris. The matter was discussed at length and brought the following day before the Association at Penygarn, and approved of. Mrs Harris journeyed to Bristol to collect towards this new academy and received, amongst others, a donation of £10 from the widow of Dr. Caleb Evans. Great preparations were being made in 1805 and 1806. A committee was appointed; the Rev. Micah Thomas was elected tutor; the location was fixed at Abergavenny; and the academy was opened with one student, Jonathan Davies; of Capel Iwan, Carmarthenshire, on January 1st, 1807. Two others entered in February.

So, Micah Thomas left Ryeford in order to become tutor of the, Abergavenny Academy - conceived and planned but barely established. But he also became minister of a new English Baptist Church now, and long since, known as Frogmore Street. This church, founded in that year, 1807, worshipped in Tudor Street Welsh Baptist Chapel (built in 1769 as an offshoot of Llanwenarth) until its chapel was opened in Frogmore Street in 1816. The present building is a much later structure, but the old chapel, renovated, is in regular use for the Sunday school and weekday activities. The church prospered under his ministry, notwithstanding the regrettable secession (probably on doctrinal grounds) of those who founded Bethany, Abergavenny in 1827 or 1828.

With increasing honour and a commanding influence he retained its pastorate until his death on November 28th, 1853, and his body was laid to rest in its burial-ground. It is not clear whether the idea of an English church was conceived before Micah Thomas actually went to Abergavenny or whether he was one of its founders after he had settled in the town as tutor of the Academy. Perhaps the situation was similar to the one at Pontypool, when the Rev (later Dr) Thomas Thomas, London, was invited to become President of the proposed new College in 1836 and also minister of an English Baptist church (now known as Crane Street) which was to be formed after his arrival.

Under Micah Thomas's capable rule the Academy grew in strength, usefulness and influence. It was never a large institution and its curriculum was necessarily modest, but it fully justified its existence. More than that, it marked an important stage in the development of Baptist ministerial education in Wales.

The over-all number of its students was 103 (perhaps l06) - in twenty-nine years - but many of them were men of outstanding ability and future leaders of the denomination. Three of them subsequently became Principals (or Presidents as they were then called) of the three new colleges of Pontypool, Haverfordwest and Llangollen: Dr. Thomas Thomas, David Davies and Dr. John Pritchard. Some Abergavenny students pursued further studies at an English college, e.g. Dr. Thomas proceeded to Stepney.

The students lived in rented rooms in the town and went to Micah Thomas's home, Aenon House, for lectures etc. Pontypool was a residential college and one is glad that its successor in Cardiff has decided "longo intervallo" to foIlow its good example.

Entry Welsh Biography Online

Under the name Micah Thomas 1778-1853 we find this entry:

Baptist minister and academy tutor; b. 19 Feb. 1778 at Whitson, Mon., son of a farmer, who was a member of New Inn Independent church. Later his parents settled at Llangibby, and he was sent to school, first at Tredunnock and then at Trosnant, Pontypool. In 1795 he joined the Pen-y-garn Baptist church, began to preach in 1796. He entered Bristol Baptist Academy in Feb. 1801, and was ordained at Ryeford, Herefs., 19 Sept. 1802. In Jan. 1807 he removed to Abergavenny, where he accomplished the great work of his life, rendering invaluable service as president of the Baptist Academy, opened that year and transferred to Pontypool, after his resignation, 1836, and as minister of Frogmore Street English Baptist church until his death 28 Nov. 1853. He m. (1) Sophia Wall of Ross; (2) Rachel Harris, daughter of John Harris, Govilon, and grand-daughter of the Rev. Morgan Harry, Blaenau Gwent. Devout, scholarly, and resolute of will, Thomas stood for a better-educated ministry, and strove to supply it. His administration and discipline were criticized, and even his Calvinistic orthodoxy, but he was undeterred. His ideals eventually prevailed, and the importance of his work was gratefully recognised. Three of his 103 odd students became the first heads of three Baptist colleges: Pontypool, Haverfordwest, and Llangollen.