Pobl Daniel Rowland: The Daniel Rowland People

It is one of the most distressing accidents of history that the papers of Daniel Rowland of Llangeitho have been lost.1 They were taken to Trefeca after his death in 1790 and given to Lady Selina Huntingdon who had the intention of writing his biography as she had been so impressed when she journeyed to Llangeitho to hear him in 1748. It is very doubtful if she would have been able to do the work, she was a monoglot Englishwoman and had very little experience of the close connection between the pulpit giant of Llangeitho and his loyal followers, many of whom were evangelising in the societies of north Wales. But Lady Selina Huntin~don died in 1791 and the Llangeitho documents disappeared, never to be found. The other great leader of the eighteenth century Welsh Religious Revival in Wales was Howell Harris (1714-1773). He left behind a vast amount of material which has been well used by the early amateur historians like John Morgan Jones of Cardiff and later by academic historians such as Dr R. T. Jenkins, Dr Derec Llwyd I Morgan, and Dr Geraint Tudur. The third leader was William Williams of Pantycelyn (1716-91) which is a farmhouse situated a few miles from Llandovery. He has fared much better because he left hundreds of hymns and poetry which has been analysed by J Saunders Lewis and all those who have followed him in the last 80 years as literary critics. There were some other leaders who fared as badly as Daniel Rowland, such as Howell Davies (1716-1790) in Pembrokeshire. He awaits his biographer and like Rowland, his papers are non-existent. 3

The three Welsh Methodist leaders, Rowland, Harris and Williams were gifted spiritual guiding lights of the early religious societies. The three could and did preach in the open air but they understood that those converted to a full evangelical experience needed to be nurtured and assisted to live the Christian life daily. The seiadau (societies) were established to strengthen their faith, to enlighten their minds, and to open their eyes to the marvels of God in the Old and New Testament Scriptures. These seiadau met in farmhouses as well as in the homes of the most enthusiastic of these converts.4 The various societies would then be supervised by men known as cynghorwyr (exhorters) who had come under the ministry of Harris, Rowland, Williams and Davies. Most of them were either in the Harris or Rowland camp, hero worshipped them, and were aware of their debt to them. For years these seiadau remained small in numbers, twelve to fifteen, being the average number of members in these seiadau. When the seiad grew in strength and gained more converts to their seiat brofiad, they often built a small chapel to be their spiritual home in a more central place, and also where they would hold Sunday evening and week-night meetings. Since they were still Anglicans, they could also attend the parish church for Sunday morning service and the capel (chapel) for the Sunday evening service.

There is one important point to be made in our comparison of the two religious leaders. Harris and Rowland adopted completely different methods for large-scale evangelization. The revivalist from Trefeca journeyed all over Wales and into England (London, in particular, where he helped George Whitefield). While Rowland's movements were more localized, mainly on the western margins of mid-¬Wales; and, on the whole; he much preferred the people to come to him than he to them.5 Harris never made Trefeca a destination for his followers. One of the prominent results of the enthusiasm generated by the Revival and the extraordinary reputation of Daniel Rowland as an evangelist was that ordinary people made it a practice to travel great distances to Llangeitho in Cardiganshire (most of them on foot) to hear the silver-tongued preacher. Or Derec Llwyd Morgan puts it well

Since Methodism was a religion of experience, since the peripatetic preaching of its spokesman was by its very nature fleeting, and since people generally were anxious to find a focus for their fidelity, some location or other was bound to become a meeting-place for the ordinary society members. As a lighthouse comforts a sailor on a stormy sea, as a water-hole offers a refreshing resting-place to the desert nomad, so does a sanctuary provide a pilgrim with refuge for his mind and body.6

Llangeitho in West Wales became the place for pilgrimage. The pilgrims usually travelled in groups, singing the hymns of William Williams on the way, and bringing their own food with them - barley bread and cheese, halting by the wayside near well-known wells and springs of fresh water to eat their meal but not before half-a-dozen prayers asking for a rich blessing had been uttered by the leaders. Then they would walk the last few more miles to Llangeitho which was rapidly growing in stature as the 'Mecca' of Methodism. By 1748 Howell Harris was attempting to prevent society members from North Wales from going to Llangeitho.7 But he could not succeed. These pilgrimages were developing a well-known structure of its own and the small village in the Aeron valley was developing as the most important centre for Welsh Methodism in the eighteenth century.

The usual practise was to make the last Sunday in the month as the special pilgrimage Sunday. Early Methodists called this Sunday Sul Pen Mis (the Special Sunday). Those from south Wales would try to arrive in Llangeitho, or at least as far as Llanddewi Brefi, on the Friday evening. Farmhouses in the Llangeitho area provided accommodation for some thirty individuals to sleep the night. These pilgrims would be provided with dry straw in one of the outhouses and with bed clothes. We should remember that these would have been of high quality for Llangeitho had a very flourishing woollen industry in the eighteenth century as did Llanddewi Brefi. The food provided for the pilgrims, by their brothers and sisters in the faith, included milk, barley bread, cheese, and, of course that favourite dish of all, cawl. This contained meat as well as vegetables, and often has been called cawl y wlad (the country soup). As fitting for the new morality of Methodism the men and women slept in separate tai mâs (outhouses) or in different parts of the farmhouse itself. On the next day, which would be a Saturday, it was the custom for Daniel Rowland to preach at 11 am when he called his audience to repentance and a nourishing discourse. Dr Owen Thomas of Liverpool, a nineteenth-century Calvinistic Methodist preacher of distinction, always claimed that the discourse of Rowland were 'replete with the purest theology'. 8

This discourse would then be followed by a preparatory meeting on the Saturday evening called Cwrdd Paratoad by the early Methodist pilgrims; and then on the Sunday morning the Communion Service was conducted either in the Meidrim Barn or New Chapel (which Daniel Rowland had built for himself in 1763, after he had been expelled by the Bishop of St Davids), but mostly, on account of the number attending it had to be held - except for severe winter weathers in the open air.9 The Anglican Church and the New Chapel were much too small. Rowland had no ambition to see any of his followers leave Yr Hen Fam (the Mother), and the New Chapel (Capel Gwynfil) came to be nurtured as the principal chapel for the whole Methodist movement throughout Wales.10 The only pilgrims allowed to receive communion were those considered to be church members, having joined a particular society.

But this restriction did not dampen the enthusiasm of dozens of pilgrims from making the pilgrimage including individuals belonging to the Baptists or the Independents. A case in point is John Thomas (1730-1810), who came under the influence of Rowland in the early eighteen-fifties, and who wrote an important Methodist autobiography entitled Rhad Ras, published in 1810, the year he died. But he was to leave the Methodists as he was more attracted to the democratic form of self government of an Independent chapel. Nevertheless, Thomas still travelled (and he was a very adventurous traveller for the Gospel) to Llangeitho occasionally, and his hero allowed him to preach to the spiritually excited pilgrims.11

In the early Sunday afternoon the various pilgrim parties would re-assemble around the chapel called Capel Gwynfil to begin the return journey to their home districts. The return journey was very much a marathon, and, for many, it would have involved walking throughout the night so as to arrive home in the valleys of Glamorganshire for work by Monday morning.

We gather from contemporary sources, private letters, and local history and personal memoirs that the prestige of Daniel Rowland as a passionate evangelist spread like wild fire northwards into Gwynedd. As a result hundreds of Welsh speaking people joined the established custom that had grown up in west Wales, in mid Wales and in south Wales travelling to Llangeitho to hear Rowland praising his Saviour. The journey from Gwynedd not have been easy or smooth. Cardigan Bay and the Cambrian Mountains intervened so these physical obstacles had to be circumvented. The methods adopted by these eager Welsh Calvinistic Methodist pilgrims in the eighteenth century were exactly, as the late Professor E G Bowen has shown, those adopted by travellers and traders in pre-historic times and by the Celtic Saints in the sixth century AD.12 They travelled partly by land, partly be sea. From archaeological studies based on prehistoric weapons, pottery and tools we have come to appreciate the methods of travel used by pre historic merchants 13. Peninsulas jutting out to the Cardigan Bay, like Lleyn, were fully utilised. The distribution maps used by E G Bowen show that early navigators must have landed on one side of the peninsular and then changed over from their boats to carts and wagons before tying up boats again on the opposite side.14 By these routes they avoided the swift currents and tides, such as those dividing Aberdaron from the Isle of Bardsey, at the tip of Lleyn Peninsula. There is abundant evidence that the great stone monuments of Neolithic times, such as Bryn Celli Ddu in Anglesey had been moved in this way. Similarly, the Iron Age Celtic peoples and later the Celtic Saints. The case presented by Professor E G Bowen is that these early Welsh Methodists reached Anglesey, the Lleyn Peninsula and Meirionnydd this way, using the trans peninsular routes, whether on the outward or the return journeys to Llangeitho to hear Daniel Rowland and other inspired preachers.15

Groups gathered at strategically located harbours such as Caernarfon (drawing from the Eryri hinterland) or at Aberffraw (drawing from the Anglesey countryside) and they then sailed south down the coast of Lleyn to Nefyn or Portdinllaen. They then obtained a horse and a cart to cross to the other side of the peninsula to reach a port like Pwllheli or Abersoch. At these Lleyn ports they would embark, once more, in sailing ships to cross Cardigan Bay in a south-easterly direction to Ceredigion, where they could reach at least one of four disembarking harbours, the busy harbour of Aberystwyth, Llannon, Aberaeron or even New Quay. Then they would have to walk the rest of the journey to Llangeitho.16 It was the usual practise for pilgrims from north west Wales, who disembarked at Aberystwyth or Llannon, to reach Llangwyryfon for the Friday night where they would meet with others.17 Then, early on Saturdays they would travel over the inhospitable Mynydd Bach, past the delightful lake of Llyn Eiddwen for Penuwch and then on for some two and half miles until they reached the village of Llangeitho. There they would meet pilgrims from south Wales who had travelled over the mountains from Llanddewi Brefi from north Carmarthenshire or over the Brecon Beacons from Merthyr Tudfil and the Glamorgan and Monmouthshire valleys.

In pursuing these part-land, part sea travel routes the pilgrims from north-west Wales were often subjected to bad weather conditions. This could be critical and frustrating in the late autumn and throughout the winter months and a large number of the pilgrim groups would have had to start their pilgrimage to Llangeitho on the Thursday rather than on a Friday so as to attend the Cwrdd Pen Mis on time. Occasionally, the storms at sea would be so horrendous that the sailing ships would have had to stay at the small port and the long trek to Llangeitho had to be postponed for another month. It was a great disappointment to the pilgrims to be unable to hear Rowland proclaiming the Gospel and to receive communion from him and his helpers. Thus, sometimes the monthly meeting had to become a bi-monthly or even a three monthly visit for the Gwynedd pilgrims.

Moreover, there were other frustrations, particularly concerning the return journey. Occasionally the travellers were held up by inclement weather at one of the Cardiganshire ports and thus might be stranded for days. Alternatively, many would have had no option but to walk all the way home. They would have struggled along the coasts of Cardiganshire, Merionethshire and Caernarfonshire, looking for a small rowing boat to cross the serveral estuaries on their route. In addition to the physical hazards, and the atrocious roads, there was also the human hazards. Many of the inhabitants of these coastal areas, egged on by the Anglican vicar and the local squire, resented these Methodist vagabonds, as they rudely called them, and treated them with disdain. Frequently they were attacked, pelted with stones, as Howell Harris was on the streets of Bala, and thrown to the ground and robbed of anything that they possessed. We know that a group of ruffians in Aberdovey pelted the pilgrim travellers with cabbages, rotten fish and vegetables. Further north at Harlech in Merionethshire, stones and heavy turf were thrown. Many of the pilgrims were so badly injured that they bleed profusely so that they had to tear up their shirts for temporary bandages.18 This loutish treatment is very different to the situation described by Professor A H Dodd in his classic, The Industrial Revolution in North Wales

The Welshman of the mid-eighteenth century, as English travellers saw him, was still the Welshman of tradition - suspicious of strangers, yet given to hospitality; frugal and parsimonious in daily life, but opt to break loose at fair-times; passionately wedded to the ancient ways; fond of pranks and practical jokes; devoted to spectacles and stage-plays. 19

The perspectives of the Methodist pilgrims were very different to those recorded by English travellers. Many were unable to obtain accommodation overnight, and the local inhabitants of these coastal towns would, en bloc, refuse them food and drink, even if they offered to pay for it. A who had been in Llangeitho called at a house in Harlech and asked for a drink of water. The woman of the house refused point blank and added:

You are having nothing here, not even a single drop to drink. Go and ask God to give to you - they tell me that you lot claim to be His servants!20

But when the weary Calvinistic Methodist pilgrims arrived home at Bryncroes or Beddgelert, Llanfechell or Llangwnadl, they never forgot their experiences at Llangeitho and the stimulating preaching of Daniel Rowland. It was so refreshing, awe-inspiring and honest, and they could heartily agree with the sentiments of William Williams:

"

A phwy bynnag gyfeilion rai,

wiw Iwybrau dwyfol ras

Fe ddatguddiai eu cyfeiliomad,

Hyd nes gwelo pawb hwy'n gas. "

Translated by Dyfnallt Morgan:

Whosoever happened to wander

From the heavenly path of grace,

He revealed to them their errors,

Helped them hate evil ways.21

These memories of Llangeitho and of the ministry of Rowland was to be 'the driving force' in their religious life hereafter and thus they were compelled to make return visits repeatedly. Often employers were often flabbergasted at the fact that their faith came before their daily work. 2 They complained that the attendances at Calvinistic Methodist meetings and the long trek to Llangeitho meant that men were irregular in their work. In his report of 1794 George Kay tells of Methodist farm labourers in Caernarfonshire who were willing to take lower wages in return for leave to go to all their chapel meetings.23

The Llangeitho pilgrims made a particular impact in their home communities. Groups who had been in Llangeitho, and who travelled regularly to the Cwrdd Pen Mis, enjoyed a particular prestige in the eyes of those who could not make the trek. Naturally, pilgrims remained in close fellowship after they returned as they had shared so many good as well as disturbing experiences. Furthermore, they were the enthusiasts, and under their charisma and dynamism, they began building chapels to be their real spiritual homes. That is why so many new chapels appeared in the late ¬eighteenth century in the Lleyn peninsula. It is fair for a historian to make the claim that these pilgrimages to and from Llangeitho, and those who took part in them were, indeed, the spearhead of Welsh Calvinistic Methodism. Indeed in north Wales these pilgrims from Gwynedd exerted tremendous influence before the impact of the second generation of charismatic leaders, such as Thomas Charles (1755-1814) and John Evans (1723-1817) based at Bala, was fully felt.24

The Llangeitho pilgrimages initiated early Methodists into two ancient traditions: there was the ancient tradition of the sea in Celtic Christianity and its link back to the unbroken tradition of the Christian Faith from the days of Christ and the Apostles. Rowland called this tradition, Y Gwir Ffydd (The True Faith), carried down by the Church of Jerusalem to the new Jerusalem of Llangeitho. This became an important aspect in the history of Welsh Methodism. Many of the Welsh causes established outside Wales were indebted to the sailors and those in charge of the sailing boats. Runcorn on the Mersey is a case in point. At the end of the eighteenth century little boats from all over north Wales sailed to Runcorn, and the Welsh chapel built in 1829 at the Back of King Street owed its existence to the Welsh sailors.25 Initially prayer meetings were held on barges at the spot called, appropriately, Chapel Basin. Indeed the dock was called Chapel Basin as it was there that the first Welsh chapel was situated. Even the Duke of Bridgewater contributed ten pounds annually towards the costS?6 The same contribution was made by the men of the sea in the nineteenth century to the establishment of Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapels in Widnes, Ellesmere Port, Preston, Barrow-in¬Furness, Millom and Dublin.27 Following the tradition of the sea, it became a custom for the Welsh captain to arrange for a sermon to be preached before the ship was deemed to beseaworthy and ready to be launched for a life of travel. Prayer meetings were held regularly, and many of these sea captains were pioneers in the witness of Calvinistic Methodism in large ports. The early pioneers in Liverpool were known as pob/ Row/and (Rowland people). Of the three pioneers in the 1780s, all were Rowland men: William Llwyd from Flintshire, and Captain Owen William Morgan, Llanallgo, owner of the ship Pennant, and Israel Matthew, one of the Pennanrs hands, who came from Rhoscolyn, Anglesey. It was they who established the Calvinistic Methodist cause on sound foundations?8

The tradition of the sea took off in another dimension with the setting up of the missionary presence in north-east India, based on the Liverpool Welsh community, after 1840. One of the early missionaries was Daniel Jones (1813-1848) and his wife, Ann.29 They both sailed from Liverpool on 13 September 1845 in the Cordelia, under the captaincy of the Birkenhead Welsh sailor, Enos Hughes.3o He writes in his diary of the storm and his sickness, his lack of sleep, and how he was afraid on hearing the wind howling and the boat tossed to and fro in the waves. When he had overcome his sailing nerves and his sea sickness he began his ministry to sailors and his fellow passengers, conducting Bible classes in both Welsh and English, praying with the sailors at the end of the day. Christmas Day 1845 was celebrated by arranging a religious service and his consecration was expressed in this sentence:

let this wonderful love win my whole heart to be its possession for ever and ever.31

Daniel Jones would have conducted the Bible class on the Cordelia with his large P.eter Williams ~ible opened before him just ~~ he .would have conducted a clas~ in his own Chapel In the Vale of Clwyd, thousan<;l"of miles away. Enos Hughes was In a great tradition of Calvinistic Methodist CaPta~s voyaging on these journeys to the Far East and South America. He made it a custom to read a dozen or so verses in Welsh from the Scriptures every morning. These routes from Liverpool to Calcutta took months - and before they returned to Merseyside, they would have read right through the whole Bible. The record of the Scripture reading was kept carefully in the ship's log. It is no wonder, then, that in many of the small ports of Wales as well as the larger ports of England, like Liverpool and Burrow-in-Furness, when the sailing ship had to remain in harbour on a Sunday the Captain would attend the local Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel. He would be well known to the ruling elders from previous visits. These Calvinistic Methodist Captains were always known as 'The Elders of the Sea' and were always invited to the Set Fawr (the Big Seat) during their stay. In several of the coastal villages of Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Cardiganshire frequently visited by these sailing ships it became a tradition for a portion of the gallery to be reserved for visiting seamen. This practice was known colloquially as ga/eri'r morwyr (the seamen's gallery). The tradition of the sea had fully penetrated the life of many an early Calvinistic Methodist along the coasts of Wales; and there are constant references to this contribution made by this Cadben, or that Cadben (Captain), to the growth of the local worshipping community.32

On the religious side it follows quite clearly that these early Calvinistic Methodists in west, mid and north Wales would have been pob/ Row/and. They were known specifically as 'Rowland's people' not pob/ Harris (the Harris people); as the two groups were identified after their bitter quarrelling and obvious theological differences in the period between 1746 and 1752. Pob/ Row/and became the guardians of the orthodox faith. As early as the Sasiwn (Association) held in Carmarthen on 5 May 1748, Harris had written in his diary

Bro. Rowland was still jealous of me about the Trinity, and had bE;len offended at somewhat I said of our carnal distinction of the Godhead setting the Fartper above Jesus Christ, and tandem it rose high. I told him I feared he did not know the Lord. He despised me, said I did not read or preach the scriptures, and I fell under it, cried 'tis true I don't study or meditate in the scripture enough.33

This was a painful admittance by Howell Harris. To admit that Rowland 'despised me' and had the audacity to claim that the revivalist from Trefeca neglected his scripture studies says a great deal. Harris had admitted it, and subsequently he was rebuked for this, on a number of occasions, by his detractors. In the next Sasiwn (Association) another aspect of their communication failures came to the surface. This is how Harris explains the problem:

I see there is one thing yet to be settled of the Lord which is dark to me till Bro. Rowland is heartily united - when I turn one out of the Society, where I feel I have authority, much of the reproof is lost by his keeping them in the Sacrament afterwards.34

This happened often in the seiadau in Cardiganshire and in Carmarthenshire. After Harris had exercised his authority and disciplined one of the members of the Society, Rowland would undermine his action by accepting the excommunicated person to the Lord's Table on the first occasion that he could. According to the historian Richard Bennett, this action of Rowland was just as responsible as any other reason for their quarrels.35 Harris felt that Daniel Rowland was undermining his status as the General Overseer of the movement. When George Whitefield came back to London from America in 1748 Harris had a golden opportunity to exert his authority and to exercise strict discipline over the growing Societies. He could state in his diary during his visit to Lampeter on 7 September 1748:

Things are beginning to come right after the storm of 3 years ... I trust things are beginning to come to their proper place, and discipline beginning to come in which has been lost where I have lost my authority since the debates came to Bro. Rowland's heart and his suspicion of my pride.36

But it is important to eml3l.a'S1s Rowland's role as preacher par excellence. Thomas Richards, Darowen, an Anglican clergyman who knew him said:

His ministerial character was far superior to all his contemporary ministers. He had a very peculiar talent in communicating his doctrine to his numerous hearers.37

Thomas Richards was a student of the early church fathers of the Protestant Reformation, and of the Puritans. Daniel Rowland himself had read from the writing of St Augustine of Hippo (354-430), especially De Civitate Dec (The City of God), which indicates the divine providence of the Christian church. He had read, also, the Practice of Piety written bl the Welsh Anglican, Lewis Bayly, before he became Bishop of Bangor in 1616.3 Rowland would have read the fifty-ninth edition when it appeared in 1735.39

Although, clearly, Rowland was a Calvinist he wasJa me~ Calvinist. He had a passion for the poor, and believed that one should €are for them. It was not just faith that was needed but faith an~ works. Because of the emphasis, he had a very different standpoint to that ot ohn Calvin and Martin Luther, who proclaimed on righteousness through faith a ne. He told his listeners at Llangeitho that the only way to anoint Christ was to anoint his body, as had Nicodemus done. 'We should do the same but with what perfume?' He replied, 'perfume of compassion'.40 He added 'Whenever one of his members is in need, we must be concerned and generous towards them our hands must follow the hands of God, for he is good to everyone. It is true, that there is no good act, that can be made without faith (Hebrew XI, 6) but its also true, that we must see the faith of our fellow pilgrims through their deeds (James

2: 18).' etL~ fAk,,~ ~.eaV1 W-~ Daniel Rowland had no patience either with ~ SGr;QQg~.Q[=tb~~RiGh=Matl=~." "Ht-' castle. Rowland said, in an uncompromising ~rmon at Llangeitho, ~

14

Yr wyf wedi blino ar y giwed hon (I am tired of this lot, that is the rich).41 ~

It was Rowland's balanced approach that was carried forward to the second generation of Calvinistic Methodist leaders. He was the 'father in the Faith' to the extraordinary Thomas Charles (1755-1814) of Bala. Thomas Charles, in his diary, mentions how he went to hear Daniel Rowland preach on the border between Cardiganshire and Pembrokeshire.

On Jan 20th 1773 I went to hear Mr Rowlands preach at New Chapel. His text was Heb IV. 15 [Canys nid archoffeiriad heb alfu cyd-ddioddef a'n gwendidau sydd gennym, and un sydd wedi ei brofi ym mhob peth, yr un modd a ni ac eta heb bechad], a day much to be remembered by me as long as I live. Ever since that happy day I have lived in a new heaven and a new earth. The change which a blind man who receives his sight experiences does not exceed the change which at that time I experience in my mind. 42

Charles had experienced conversion. We also know that Charles's fiance Sally (nee Jones), who became his wife, travelled with the Merionethshire pilgrims from Bala to Llangeitho and that she had heard Rowland preaching on the Epistle of Jude. She said:

Mr Rowlands' text was in 20v of the epistle of Jude. 'Praying in the Holy Spirit'. There was something solemn and awful in the place, and I thought that perhaps the greatest divine since the time of the apostles was then undertaking his Glorious Employment.43

The 'greatest divine since the time of the apostles', to use the extravagant language of Sally Charles, was a hero to the third generation of Welsh Calvinistic Methodist leaders as personified in the lives of the Revd Or Lewis Edwards and his remarkable son, Rev Or Thomas Charles Edwards.44 They, like Rowland, taught an unswerving traditional orthodoxy. Characteristically, Rowland's approach was always historical. He wished to show that the true Faith had descended in an unbroken tradition from the early church fathers into the Creeds of Nicea and Articles of Faith of the Anglican Church, which had been passed down, from generation to generation by godly men and women.45 He was a priest of the Church of God but he realised that his role was as a midwife to a new movement which, after the Great Awakening, would have a completely new life of its own. But that was yet to come for he would live and die as a committed Anglican but one of Calvinistic Methodist disposition.

We note from the text of his sermons that have survived how closely his theology is linked to those who had defended the true faith in the past. Rowland felt that he was in the footsteps of the patron saint of Wales, Dewi who had flourished in the early sixth century.46 David had embraced the monastic life and its austere discipline, and like Daniel Rowland he had gathered disciples around him in west Wales. But Dewi also had taken a leading role in the struggle against the Pelagian heresy at the Synod held at Llanddewi Brefi.47 It was this aspect to the life of Dewi, the abbot¬bishop, that endeared him to Daniel Rowland as well as all those who had stood resolutely against heresy, such as St Augustine, St Bernard of Clairvaux and others referred to in Rowland's preaching at Llangeitho to his mesmerised followers. Rowland kept strictly to the middle of the road and he did not allow his evangelicalism to make his thinking unlogical. Indeed in the great excitement and enthusiasm of the meetings on Suliau Pen Mis he was able to retain a tight grip on the thousands who had come to be inspired and nourished by his passionate preaching. The hymn writer and great friend of Rowland, William Williams of Pantycelyn, called him 'boanerges' which means 'son of thunder'; and, in an elegy on his death, he describes him proclaiming light as well as judgement: wonder, fear and panic overtook great and small, every countenance changed and kneed trembled light thunder among the followers at Llangeitho in mid Cardiganshire for nearly fifty years. When Daniel Rowland died on 16 October 1790 the news spread like wild fire.48 In their thanksgiving for his life and work it became clear that the 'LLangeitho spirit' of intense and serious commitment had enriched the new chapels that were soon to be built as a lasting memorial, particularly, in south Cardiganshire.49

A great deal of travelling to LLangeitho still occurred after Rowland's death but the star attraction had gone. The sermon at ten o'clock on Sunday mornings, the only service for a radius of ten miles continued to be held at LLangeitho for Pob/ Row/and. Usually, itinerant preachers took the service, but for SuI Pen Mis (the Communion Service) at least two of the Anglican-Methodist vicars were invited. The area was blessed with John Hughes, Sychbant, and John Williams, known as the Revd John Williams, LLedrod. They would be expected to conduct the Anglican liturgy just as Rowland had done. It only happened when either John Hughes or John Williams was present. To many of Rowland people the service of SuI Pen Mis was the complete service. John Williams was liberally minded and began to feel, after the arrival of Revd Ebeneser Richard at Tregaron in 1809, that they should be more free in their liturgy. Williams and Richard came to an agreement.

In consequence, the Prayer Book Service was no longer to be used for SuI Pen Mis at LLangeitho, a format that had been adhered to for twenty years since the passing of Daniel Rowland. Instead a chapter of the Bible was to be read, and the leading elder in LLangeitho, David Jones, Dolau Bach, was to be given the honour of reading the word of God.50 By this time John Williams had moved to live at Pentre Padarn, some two mile from the chapel in LLangeitho and had become a member of the congregation. His wisdom and his long service as a Methodist Anglican had endeared him to Pob/ Row/and. Indeed, he himself had now become one of Rowland's people in 1781 when he joined the Calvinistic Methodists in their Seiat in Swyddffynnon.51 When the final break with the Anglican church came in 1811, and the formation of a new denomination, John Williams (1747-1831) was to take a

~~ing part in the first ordination at LLandeilo and became a member of the Yl

R&$n. By now LLangeitho was ceasing to be a 'Mecca' for Methodism. Now it was becoming more like all fT'l.-.AI'Y allvll fer village! in Wales: a home for the new chapels of a new denomination, and when the~ build the third chapel in 1813-15, the pilgrimages to LLangeitho had virtually ceased. 2 As St David's in Pembrokeshire had ceased to be a place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages, so LLangeitho ceased as a destination for pilgrims by 181 O. T~~.pj1enomenon had lasted for some 70 years. Today, Soar-y-mynydd, still in the €~county as LLan~eitho, has taken over from LLangeitho as a chapel for pilgrims from all over Wales. 3 Pob/ Row/and need the inspiration of pilgrimage in every generation.

References:

1 D Odwyn Jones, Daniel Rowland LLangeitho (LLandysul, 1938), pps 1-2. He maintains that none of Daniel Rowland's papers are in existence - not one letter, or any observation, nor any account of a society gathering or of an Association meeting.

2D Ben Rees, HanesyrHen Gorff(Lerpwl a LLanddewi Brefi, 1981),30.

3Nathaniel Rowland (1743-1831), the youngest son of Daniel Rowland became a son-in-law to Howel Davies. For Nathaniel Rowland, see D Myrddin LLoyd, 'Nathaniel Rowland and the Tabernacle, Haverfordwest', Cylchgrawn Cymdeithas Hanes y Methodistiaid Calfinaidd, Vol XXXVI, no 2, pps 33¬41.

4The most detailed account of these seiadau is to be found in W G Hughes-Edwards, The Development and Organisation of the Methodist Society in Wales, Un pub. MA Thesis, University of Wales 1966, (Unpublished).

5'Rowland, for his part, was generally content to let the mountain come to Mahomet, and LLangeitho long remained the Mecca to which ardent disciples resorted even from the north, braving the buffetings of storms at sea and hostile mobs by land.' See A H Dodd, Life in Wales, London, 1972, p 101.

6Derec LLwyd Morgan (translated by Dyfnallt Morgan), The Great Awakening in Wales, London, 1988, p66.

8ibid, P 67

91n the beginning, that is from 1737 to 1763, Rowland made use of the Barn at Meidrim Farm in the parish of LLangeitho for workshop. He had possession of two farm, Wenallt and Meidrim, with the river Aeron running between them. As the vicarage where he lived was close to Wenallt he did not need the Meidrim buildings. He converted the buildings at Meidrim into houses, and turned the Ysgubor (barn) into a chapel where the exhorters could preach and to hold church meetings. This Barn remained as a chapel till 1760, and it was then converted into a home for the well-known exhorter John Williams (known in Methodist circles as ShOn Scubor from the name of his home Sgubor Meidrim). He was superintendent of the farms on behalf of Rowland for years. See, J E Evans, Abermeurig Hanes Methodistiaeth De Aberteifi, Dolgellau, 1904, pps 92-3.

10lbid, pps 93-4. This chapel was for Pobl Rowland. It was divided into two parts, what were known as y Ty-nesaf (the nearest house) and Ty-pellaf (the furthest house). A pulley winch was installed to pull up the communion table so as to have more room for the adherents during the sermon. As the chapel had two houses, it was regarded as the 'Ancient Temple of Jerusalem', - a sanctuary for the gentiles and a sanctuary for the true Israelites. When the listeners went further from the pulpit, it was regarded as a symbol of their lack of faith, but when an adherent, who was regarded as of little faith, came nearer the pulpit, it was sign of his desiring to be a true believer.

11John Owen, Coffhad am y Parch Daniel Rowlands, Chester, 1839, pps 34-6.

121 owe a great debt personally to the late Professor Emrys G Bowen (1900-83) whom I heard lecturing to us as theological students in 1961-62 at the United Theological College, Aberystwyth on the Daniel Rowland people. His approach to the early Celtic saints was breath-taking, especially in his three books, The Settlements of the Celtic Saints in Wales (1954); Saints, Seaways and Settlements (1969) and Britain and the Western Seaways (1972).

13Glyn Daniel in 150 Year of Archaeology, Second Edition, London, 1975, p 184 has given valid examples by comparing the. approach of two great Welsh scholars, Sir John Rl9s and Sir John Edward LLoyd. Sir John RtS'.," Celtic Britain published in 1882; The Welsh People, which he wrote with D Brynmor Jones MP in 1900 entirely neglected archaeological sources, but in Sir John Edward LLoyd's History of Wales (1910) we see the first recognition of archaeological sources. Daniel writes in a footnote on page 184: 'LLoyd tries to marry the archaeological and non-archaeological sources, and equate the three ages of the archaeologists with the peoples of Rl¥s and Brynmor Jon es'.

14 From the lecture mentioned in note 12.

161n each of these harbours there were followers of Daniel Rowland. At LLannon, for example, we had Si6n Alban who lived at Penlan. He travelled regularly to LLangeitho. See John Evans, Abermeurig, Hanes Methodistiaeth De Aberteifi, Dolgellau, 1904, pps 135-6.

17 One of the keenest of the early pioneers was Richard Tibbott (1719-98), a native of LLanbryn-mair. He remained an Independent becoming minister of Hen Gapel, LLanbryn-mair in 1762. In the beginning he was a follower of Harris but he had become a devout disciple of Rowland by 1752 and visited LLangeitho regularly. See Gomer M Roberts, 'Y LLafurwyr Cynnar' in Hanes Methodistiaeth Galfinaidd Cymru, CyfroLl, Golygydd Gomer M Roberts, Caernarfon, 1973, pps 272-3.

18 John Hughes, Methodistiaeth Cymru, CyfroLl, Wrecsam, 1860, p220.

19A H Dodd, Life in Wales, London, 1972, p68.

20 John Hughes, op cit, 220. According to Robert Jones, Rhoslan, ihe exception to the rule seems to be the inhabitants of Barmouth.-

21W Williams, Marwnad y Parchedig Mr Daniel Rowlands, Carmarthen, 1791, pps, 8-9. 22A H Dodd, The Industrial Revolution in North Wales, Cardiff, 1933, p 399.

23G Kay, A General View of the Agriculture of North Wales, Edinburgh, 1794, pps 20-1.

241t is of interest that Thomas Charles was, for years, one of the leaders of the pilgrims from Bala to LLangeitho. They numbered twenty to thirty and they walked the ninety miles over difficult terrain, some on foot, others on horseback. They would start on Saturday morning and return on Sunday afternoon, delighted that they had heard Daniel Rowland preaching. John Hughes, Methodistiaeth Cymru, CyfroLl, Wrecsam, 1860, pps 219-220.

251Seafaring people were the early pioneers and the Chapel used to be full when the sailing boats arrived at Runcorn'. See D Ben Rees, The Welsh of Merseyside, Volume 1, Liverpool 1997, p 31.

26 John Hughes Morris, Hanes Methodistiaeth, Liverpool, CyfroLl, Liverpool, 1932, p 332.

27ibid, pps 335-372.

28D Ben Rees (edited), Liverpool Welsh and their Religion, Liverpool and LLanddewi Brefi, 1984, p 45. 29D Ben Rees, Daniel Jones (1813-1848) in Vehicles of Grace and Hope: Welsh Missionaries in India 1800-1970. Edited by D Ben Rees, Pasadena, 2002, pps 80-1. The account is based on the interesting biography and diary of Daniel Jones published in the Calvinistic Methodist monthly magazine Y Drysorfa for 1849. One should read the March, April, May, June, July, August and September issues, and also,see LLestri Gras a Gobaith, Liverpool 2001), pps 97-99.

30ibid, P 80.

31ibid.

32Hettie Glyn Davies, Edrych yn 61: Hen atgofion am Geredigion, Lerpwl, 1958, p 48. 33Howell Harris's Visits to Pembrokeshire by Tom Beynon, Aberystwyth, 1966, p 147.

34Howell Harris's Visits to London by Tom Beynon, Aberystwyth, 1960, p 181.

35Griffith T Roberts, 'Y Mudiad Cymreig a Oiwygwyr LLoegr' in Hanes Methodistiaeth Galfinaidd Cymru CyfroLl, Y Deffroad Mawr, Golygydd Gomer M Roberts, Caernarfon, 1923, pps 332-3.

36Howell Harris Visits to Pembrokeshire by Tom Beynon, Aberystwyth, 1966, pps 150-1.

370 Ben Rees, Pregethu a Phregethwyr, Oinbych, 1997, p 105.

3BEdited by Michael Walsh, Dictionary of Christian Biography, London and New York, 2001, pps 109¬110.

39ibid, P 153.

4°0 Ben Rees, op cit, 1997, P 108. 41ibid, P 109.

42ibid, P 110.

43ibid, P 111.

44Reverend Dr Lewis Edwards (1809-1887) studied at the University of Edinburgh and took over the Bala C M College at its inception in 1837 and built a reputation for his moderate Calvinism, as editor of Y Traethodydd, and as a popular preacher. His son, Thomas Charles Edwards (1837-1900), gained First Class Honours at Lincoln College, Oxford and became a Calvinistic Methodist preacher at Windsor Street, Liverpool, and later in 1872, was appointed as the first principal of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. In 1891, he resigned to become principal of his father's college, Bala Calvinistic Methodist College. He also propounded moderate Calvinism in the Rowland tradition, though he felt that the early Methodists had very little theology, and his commentary on First Epistle to the Corinthians which appeared in 1885 has stood the test of time. It is well worth reading today, in 2005.

p}

45But, as ~al Derec LLwyd Morgan points out, Rowland had inner tranquillity and tolerance towards those like Peter Williams who could wander into unorthodox territory. Principal D LI Morgan states: 'It was with Nestorian wisdom that he shielded Peter Williams against the wrath of his opponents in 1770 - and this Nestor, let it be remembered, was the defender of Athanasius and of Nicea!' Derec LLwyd Morgan, The Great Awakening in Wales, London, 1988, p 71.

46See, E G Bowen, Dewi Sant / Saint David, Cardiff, 1983; D Simon Evans (editor), The Welsh Life of Saint David, Cardiff, 1988; Arthur Wade-Evans, Life of St David, London and New York, 1923.

47D Ben Rees, Reader's Guide to British History, Volume 1c_, edited by David Loades, New York and London, 2003, pps 333-334.

4Bln his collection of hymns, Rhai Hymnau Duwiol (Some Godly Hymns) Hymn y Pererinion published in 1745, Daniel Rowland wrote (The Pilgrims Hymn) which welcomed death and the promises of heaven. Many of those who heard the news of the death of Daniel Rowland in 1790 sang The Pilgrims Hymn in memory of their 'Godly Pastor'. Dyfnallt Morgan has translated the original into English

Goodbye, deceitful world, goodbye, To Canaan lie we gladly:

We go in hope, a happy band, To stand fore God Almighty.

The Lord our God hath room prepared, Hath for us cared, His children;

Take us, Oh gentle Jesus, take,

For thy name's sake, to Canaan.

If, Heavenly Father, thus it be, That happy are thy dwellings,

That Thou hast loved us, we shall see A Country full of blessings.

This is the original:

Ffarwel dwyllodrys fyd ffarwel,

Y [= I] Ganaan gwel ni'n myned; Tryfaelu yr um, tryfaelu a wnawn, At Dduw ni gawn ei weled.

Ein Harglwydd Dduw mae gantho le, Yni medd e ei hynan;

Wele ni'n dyfod Jesu mwyn Gollwng dy wyn y Ganaan

Os felly y mae hi 0 Dad, Amen, Ni fyddwn lawern ddynion:

Ti'n ceraint ni preswylio y gawn, Mewn gwlad lawn 0 fendythion.

See for the Welsh version, Derec LLwyd Morgan, Y Diwygiad Mawr, LLandysl, 1981, p283 and for the translation, Derec LLwyd Morgan, The Great Awatekning in Wales, opcit, p27.

49Daniel Rowland was invited to open some of the chapels before his death, such as Rhiwbwys Chapel in LLanrhystud in 1781. But others such as Bethel Chapel, LLanddewi Aberarth (where the Welsh scholar, Emeritus Professor Hywel Teifi Edwards was nurtured) were built in 1790, the year of his passing. John Evans, Abermeurig, states that Rowland's death was a catalyst for the building of new chapels in south Cardiganshire. See John Evans, Hanes Methodistiaeth De Aberteifi, Dolgellau, 1904, pps 150 and 168.

50David Jones, Dolau Bach, LLangeitho, was made an elder in 1822 and he became a notable leader in Calvinistic Methodist circles in south Wales and a friend to some of the pulpit giants like Revd Dr Owen Thomas. For their relationship, see D Ben Rees, The Life and Work of Owen Thomas 1812¬1891: A Welsh Preacher in Liverpool, Lampeter, 1991, pps 84,90,186.

51 For John Williams, see John Evans Yr Offeiriad Methodistaidd, Dolgellau, 1891. Evans mentions how John Williams was accepted into the Penlan Society at Swyddffynnon by the exhorter John Dafydd Daniel (Si6n Camer-fawr, Tregaron). John Dafydd Daniel was flabbergasted that an old exhorter like himself had the privilege of welcoming a vicar to the Seiat! But he was, indeed, one of Rowland's people. John Dafydd Daniel had been converted under the ministry of Daniel Rowland as early as 1738, and soon became the preacher-exhorter for the Tanrallt Society. See Gomer M Roberts (Golygydd), Hanes Methodistiaeth Galfinaidd Cymru Cyfrol2, Cynnydd y Corff, Caernarfon, 1978,p81.

52John Evans, Abermeurig, Hanes Methodistiaeth De Aberteifi, Dolgellau, 1904, p 101.

53R S Thomas, (1913-2001) the Anglo-Welsh poet, who made a pilgrimage to Soar-y-mynydd in 1948 described it 'as the Chapel of the Soul'. 'Here in the soil and dirt and the peat do we find life and heaven and hell and it is in these surroundings that a Welshman should forge his soul'. See D Ben Rees, 'Spirituality as an exploration', Faith and Freedom, Volume 54, Number 153, Autumn and Winter 2001, pps 137-148.