Thomas Jones

Thomas Jones (17 July 1819 – 24 June 1882) was a Welsh Independent minister, known as "the Welsh Poet-Preacher". As a popular preacher he has been compared with William Williams of Wern (1781–1840). His reputation was made, however, by his sermons in English at Bedford Chapel in north London, in a less popular style. Life Born at Rhayader, Radnorshire, on 17 July 1819, he was son of John Jones (died 1829), a commercial traveller. After attending the village school, he was apprenticed about 1831 to a flannel manufacturer named Winstone at Llanwrtyd; in 1837 he obtained work at Brynmawr, first as a collier and then as a check weigher; and in 1839 moved to Llanelli, Carmarthenshire. He began preaching among the Calvinistic Methodists, but in 1841 joined the Independents. After attending three or four years of school at Llanelli, Jones was ordained first pastor of Bryn Chapel, nearby, in July 1844. In 1845 he moved to take charge of the churches of Hermon and Tabor, near Llandeilo. In 1850 he settled as pastor of Libanus Church, Morriston, near Swansea, and as "Jones Treforris" became known throughout Wales for his eloquence. In September 1858 Jones accepted the pastorate of the nonconformist congregation at Albany Chapel, Frederick Street, in north-west London. Succeeding there, he moved in 1861 to a larger church, Bedford Chapel near Oakley Square, where he ministered to December 1869. There Robert Browning was a seat-holder, and stated that Jones attracted listeners by the "outpour of impetuous eloquence" and his "liberal humanity".