LLOYD, EVAN (1764 - 1847), Unitarian Baptist minister

Born 21 March 1764 at Nevern; member of Cardigan Baptist church and assistant there to William Williams (1732 - 1799). He served in the militia when the French landed at Fishguard, 1797. He does not seem to have been a General Baptist at the time of the 1799 schism, for in 1801 he was ordained at Ffynnonhenry (D. Jones, Hanes Bed. Deheubarth Cymru, 423, with Yr Ymofynydd, 1847, 93), but soon became an Arminian, and left; his own statement (recorded by his son in Yr Ymofynydd, loc. cit.) says that he refused to sign the Particular Baptist confession as a condition of financial help from the Baptist Fund. He now joined the General Baptist cause of ' Ty Coch ' in Cardigan town and (again on his own testimony, loc. cit.) became pastor there and at Zoan (Pembrokeshire) - some have doubted this statement, but there is nothing improbable in it. However, by 1808 he was pastor of the two small General Baptist churches of Wick and Nottage (Glamorganshire), and was there till his death 30 July 1847. His name recurs in the Monthly Repository, as attending (and preaching at) General Baptist assemblies, but also as attending Unitarian assemblies. As the latter were open also to ' our Arian brothers in the ministry,' there is no need to doubt the statement in Lloyd's obituary notice (Yr Ymofynydd, 1847, 48) that he was 'over 60' when he became a declared Unitarian. He seems to have been an amiable and highly-respected man - he was on good terms with the local parson. Counting Lloyd himself, his son, a grandson, and another descendant of his, the pastorate of the two churches was in the hands of this family for 120 years, with a break of only five years; other members of the family figure in the annals of other Unitarian churches. The two chapels are still in use - they, and the chapel at Pant Teg (Carmarthenshire - see under William Thomas, died 1813), are now the only ' General Baptist ' chapels in Wales.

Author

• Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Sources

• To the sources mentioned add Yr Ymofynnydd, May and June 1931,
• and Trafodion Cymdeithas Hanes Bedyddwyr Cymru, 1930, 1931
• Dates of birth and death are from Lloyd's memorial tablet in Nottage chapel

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20733037

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/