The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-03
PETER WILLIAMS,
BIBLE ANNOTATOR
Expelled from the State Church on Ac.
count Of His MethOdisnl.
CAST INTO SIR WATCYN'S KENNEL
Mr.. and Mrs. Gladstone Take Tea ar
Welsh Village Inn and Shake
Hands wirh the Country Maidens..
Notes of Interest.

Recently, at Pendine. Carmarthen-
shire. great services were held at the
church erected to the memory of the
Rev. Peter Williams, the famous Welsh
Bible annotator and preacher. When
the geographical history of Welsh nom
conformity comes to be written it will
be found that Carmarthenshire occu-
pies conspicuous and important place
in the earlier chapters. To get q few
steps further back than the rise Of
Calvinistic Methodism, it was Carmar-
thenshire that gave birth to Vicar
Prichard. the greatest religious factor
in Wales in the seventeenth century.
There lived and labored Stephen
Hughes, the Wears "pallbearer," and
compiler and editor of "Canwyn y
Cymry." The same county witnessed
the patriotic labors of Griffith Jones.
| OF Llanddowror, the initiator of the
movement for popular education In
Wales, and the man who made the
sunday school movement possible
from the neighborhood of Llandovery
| came Williams, of Pantycelyn; from
Cayo. David Jones, the translator of
Watts hymns; John Evans, of Llwyn-
| fforten; Thomas Charles. of Bala, the
organizer and consolidator of the
Corph. and Rhys Pugh. Charles's ear
ly instructor in Methodism. An equal
ly prominent name in those
stirring times-the middle of the
last century-was Peter Williams,
also native of Carmarthen-
shire, born in the parish of Liam
sadwrn, in 1922, educated for the
church at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar
| school, Carmarthen. ordained deacon
| by the Bishop of st. Davlds, served
as curate at Eglwys Cwmmin, his first
and only licensed charge; then be-
came q free lance. now undertaking
duties at Swansea. then at Llangranog,
and again at Llandyssilio, in Cardigan
shire. until he finally was cast adrift
| and forced to join the band of young
Methodist enthusiasts who We're then
| turning the Welsh world upside down
and setting established ecclesiastical
| authority at nought Griffith Jones.
1.-The Apostle of Wales" Howell Harris.
| the Brecknockshire visionary. and
| Daniel Rowlands, the Prophet of Liam
geitho, had done the work of pioneers
| before Peter Williams entered the field
| but Welz1 Methodism was still young
and opposition as strong as ever. His
| parents died-his mother when he was
| nine years old. and his father three
years later-and he was adopted by a
| maternal uncle. who had little SYM
pathy with the visions and dreams
| which then filed the air. but seemed
| to have eXerted strong influence over
Peter Williams fervid imagination
and turned his thoughts to the minis
| try. When at school at Carmarthen
came a crisis in his history. George
Whitfield was announced to preach in
| the town. and. in spite of the school,
| masters warning, young Peter went
| to hear the great preacher, and felt
| the potency of his eoquence.
Conversions" We're not respectable
| in those days; Peters relatives were
Mortified and the hapless youth. whose
| religious fervor, mistaken for intelec-
tual weakness, was reckoned a dis
grace to the school and a slur on the
| family, was taken home and again
yoked to his uncle's plough. Back,
however, he went and applied himself
to his studies with commendable dill
gence. At q he left Queen Elizabeth's
| school and opened school on his own
| account ON Conwil Elfed. the old neigh
| borhood of the Howells, relative of
James Howells, ambassador under
James l., and author of "Epistolae
Hoelianae." At % he enters. with fear
and trembling, the Episcopal Palace, a
| candidate for deacon's orders, which
isfied himself that Peter had been COM
! pletely cured of his mania. The epis-
copal license pointed to Eglwys Cumin,
| as Outlandish a spot as the civilized
| universe could show, where a congre-
CATION, except of seagulls and lap
| wings, was an impossibility. Here
Peter Williams commenced his mis-
sion. receiving in return such pittance
as did not suffice for his horse, and
| compelled to exc out a Giving wage"
by keeping school. Thus was he
cooped up. shackled, and manacled by
| ecclesiastical restrictions, while his
eagle soul yearned, like John Wesley's,
for whole world for a parish. Is it
to be wondered at that it burst it's
narrow bounds and sought neighboring
| fields? The end was not far The rec
tors wife discovered traces of Method
ism in his sermons, his ministry was
tainted, the bishop interviewed. Will
Jams license was cancelled. and thus
his official connection with the church
he loved so well. and could serve so
eminently, ceased at a single stroke.
| The rector and the rector's wife, the
rural dean and the arch deacon, and
even the Hon. Richard Trevor himself,
| who then filled the throne of ST. Da-
vid's have long passed from memory,
but Peter Williams, the inhibited cur
ate, remains a living memory in Pen
dine church, and will remain while the
Cowyn seeks the sea and Ragwen
Point looks upon the waters.
| Peter Williams stay in the church
was not of long duration. and he was
induced to cast his lot among the re-
vivalists, and it is as a preacher with
the Methodists we see him henceforth.
| In that capacity he endured much
obloquy and persecution. At Kidwelly,
within short distance of his home at
Gelllednais, in the parish of Llandy-
feilog, on his attempting to hold SER
vice in the open air one Sunday after
noon. he was set upon by number of
roughs and savagely beaten. When he
mounted his horse they led the animal
to the neighboring marsh and COM
PEELED him to leap across the bitches
| which abound in that spot promising
preacher wallow in the mire. But be-
ing good horseman Williams escaped
accident. He was afterwards dragged
into the public house. where the mob
| tried to make him drunk. This at
| tempt also proved fruitless. for he
poured the beer into his riding boots.
At length he was rescued from his tor
mentors by his own servants, whom his
wife sent in quest of him. While at
| Wfexnam ne was arrested by order of
a local magistrate Zone of the Wynns,
of Wynnstay). and brought into the
great mans presence. The proceedings
of that famous meeting are not report
ed, but the interview ended i'm Peter
| Williams being cast into the lions den
\ to wit, the dog kennel-where he
| spent the night. Tn the morning he
| gained his freedom, and was followed
by the constables who had arrested
him the previous day to the house of
one Moses Williams. The constables'
object, probably, was robbery, and
Moses Williams, on seeing them COM
ing, took from Peter Williams his
watch. and all the rascals could find
on the preachers person was three
shillings and six pence and a snuff
box. Peter, though a saint. was fond
of pinch of snuff, and at his earnest