EDWARDS, MILES (1743 - 1808); Baptist minister

Born at Goytre, Monmouthshire, in 1743. His father (Rev. Thomas Edwards, Llanwenarth) died in 1746 and his mother removed to Pontypool, where (at Pen-y-garn, in 1766) he began to preach. Trained at Trosnant, at Leominster, and at Bristol Baptist Academy, he was ordained in 1775 as assistant minister at Bethedsa (Bassaleg, Monmouth). In 1776 he was elected minister of a new church which was gathered in his house, Wern, near Pontypool, and which, in 1779, settled at Upper Trosnant. He ministered there until his death on 25 September 1808, and he was buried in the chapel burial-ground. Miles Edwards was considered a good scholar, and an effective preacher in Welsh and English. A frequent itinerant, he periodically ministered to a congregation at Coleford. Although Jonathan Edwards was perhaps his favourite theologian, his theology was a very qualified Calvinism, and his influence undoubtedly helped to liberate the Welsh Baptist pulpit from the doctrinal rigidity and restricted appeal of the current hyper- Calvinism.

Author

• Reverend Edward William Price Evans, (1887 - 1972)

Sources

• Hanes y Bedyddwyr ymhlith y Cymry: o amser yr Apostolion, hyd y flwyddyn hon: yn ddwy ran (Caerfyrddin 1778), 575
• Cymru yn hanesyddol, parthedegol, a bywgraphyddol (1875)
• Josiah Thomas Jones, Geiriadur Bywgraffyddol o Enwogion Cymru (Aberdâr 1867-70), i, 238
• Notable Welshmen (1700–1900) (1908)

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20733927

Published date: 1959

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