WILLIAM, THOMAS (1717 - 1765), Methodist exhorter and later Independent minister
Name: Thomas William
Date of birth: 1717
Date of death: 1765
Gender : Male
Occupation: Methodist exhorter and later Independent minister
Area of activity: Religion
Author: Gomer Morgan Roberts
Born 1717, son of the miller of Corrwg mill, Eglwysilan, Glamorganshire. He came to religion under the ministry of Howel Harris, c. 1738. He was a schoolmaster in the circulating schools, began to exhort among the Methodists, and in 1743 was appointed superintendent of the societies in Glamorgan. He was one of those who, in 1745, conveyed the message concerning the ordination of exhorters to the Association; he and his friend, William Edwards (1719 — 1789), were given some kind of ordination by the Groes-wen society. He kept up his connection with Methodism, and was Howel Harris’s right hand man in the early years of the split between him and Daniel Rowland. In 1752 he was expelled from Harris’s party and he and the Groes-wen society seceded and joined the Independents. He died while he was on a preaching tour in the Rhondda valley, 16 December 1765, and was buried in Cymer churchyard.
