I will now turn to a more pleasing subject. About the year 1708, three years before Abel Morgan left Wales, a young man of the name of Enoch Francis, nineteen years of age, began to preach in the Baptist church at Newcastle Emlyn, and in a few years fully made up for the loss of Abel Morgan, for besides serving the church at Newcastle, he served its four branches, being aided by other ministers of less talent; and besides these labours he took his round every year to visit every Baptist church in the principality. His appearance was hailed everywhere as an occasion of joy, not only by his brethren the Baptists, but by other denominations, and by all classes of people. He possessed a mind of the highest order, and a constitution of the firmest sort; in fact his body and mind were both cast in nature's finest mould; although rather grave in his manner, yet he was a most pleasing companion. In his fiftieth year he lost his wife, who left six children, three sons and three daughters. About six months after, he set out for his regular tour to visit the churches, hut when he had got as far as Fishguard .in Pembrokshire, he was taken sick of a fever, and died in two weeks. His wife had been buried at Kilvowyr, about twenty miles from the place where he died, and as soon as the news of his death was heard, the people in every parish, without distinction, made arrangements to carry his corpse through their own territory on a bier; this was in the month of February, 1740, and the roads were lined by the people, who came many miles to look at the mournful procession.
Our historians say, that the sensation and deep sorrow which prevailed through all South Wales, was almost incredible. Many elegies were written and printed. But the one that is preserved by Mr. Thomas in his history of the Baptists, was made by Rev. Jenkin Thomas, pastor of the Independent church at Trewen, within a mile of Newcastle; he was nephew of Abel Morgan, and Dr Richards says never had his superior in Wales as a poet, and was also a distinguished scholar. Such was the bard who composed the immortal elegy on Enoch Francis. A Mr Jones published an edition of Thomas's history in 1839, continued; but Mr Thomas was much abridged. That elegy, although pretty long, is kept entire. In it the poet expresses the greatest admiration of his personal appearance, his fidelity to the cause of his Redeemer, and his splendid talents. He speaks of him as a husbandman and sower of seeds, as a shepherd, as a distributor of wealth, as a warrior, all in the finest strains of poetry, and then represents all the churches of the Baptists in Wales in different attitudes of mourning, in which he evinces the richest display of language; and then exhibits his brethren in the ministry, in the fields, and on the walls of Zion. shedding the briny tears for their friend; and speaks of his published works and his orphan children, on whom he invokes the richest blessings of heaven; and finally speaks of his burial along with his lovely partner and many pleasant brethren; but his faithful soul had ascended to happy heaven to dwell in the presence of his God. This happened one hundred years almost before Messrs. Cox and Hoby wrote "The Baptists in America," yet they say that at that time the Baptists were looked upon as interlopers in many parts of England.
Mr Francis had a cousin in the ministry, Abel Francis. Jonathan Francis, his eldest son, was long a faithful minister. Jonathan Francis had a son, Enoch Francis, pastor of a Baptist church at Exeter, England; the Rev T Boyce, of London, and Rev William Strawbridge, well known to many in Philadelphia, were baptised at Exeter on the same day by the younger E Francis. Nathaniel, the second son, a pious and promising youth, died at 18. One of his daughters married Rev Stephen Davis, pastor of one of the Baptist churches in Carmarthen, who was also a man of considerable distinction in society as to wealth and influence; the Rev Stephen Davis of Clonmel, Ireland, a missionary on behalf of the Irish Baptist Society, was, or is, a grandson of Rev Stephen Davis above mentioned. Dr Burchell some time ago gave an account of eight or ten of the most eminent Baptist ministers in England. I observed that the name of John Davis, son of the last Stephen Davis, was one of them. Mr Francis's two other daughters were eminent Christians, and in prosperous circumstances, but the most eminent of his family after himself was Rev Benjamin Francis of Horsley, in Gloucestershire, a fine poet. Several of his hymns are in Rippon's selection, and one or two in the Psalmist. His Welsh hymns are pretty numerous, numbering some hundreds, but in his English hymns he is rather too apt to use superlatives, a common fault with Welshmen in composing English poetry, because there is a copiousness of meaning in Welsh words that a person acquainted only with the English cannot imagine.
It is impossible to conceive of a more pleasing circumstance, than a whole people in deep lamentation for a pious and unassuming Christian minister, especially of a sect everywhere else spoken against. It was a bitter lamentation of the prophet, "the righteous man dieth and no man layeth it to heart, that before the evil days the righteous are removed." Such was not the case in Wales when Enoch Francis died; the churches and the people generally thought that the loss could not be made up; but a young man named Timothy Thomas had commenced just before his death in the same church, scarcely inferior to Francis; and shortly after, his brother, Joshua Thomas, the historian; and a few years after, Zechariah Thomas, the younger brother, and many others in different parts of the principality. The above three brothers were all able men. Timothy died under fifty, being the third eminent minister raised in Newcastle church, who died under fifty years, or in the fiftieth year, viz: Abel Morgan, Enoch Francis, and Timothy Thomas, the last died in 1768; Joshua about 1796, and Zechariah in 1817, after sixty years of faithful and able ministerial service. There were two ministers in London, sons of the two elder Thomases; Thomas of Peckham, and Thomas of Devonshire Square. Dr Thomas, who went to India with Carey, was a son of one of them. There was an eminent minister, a son of one of the three brothers, in Wales, and the present pastor of the Baptist church at NewCastle Emlyn, is one of their descendants, an able and worthy man, also named Timothy Thomas. I know no more of the history of this most worthy family, which produced so many able and faithful ministers, every one of whom adorned the doctrines of God our Saviour, by living a life unblemished!
There was also Thomas Evans, a minister who commenced about 1653, who had among his descendants about twelve, or at least ten ministers, many of them very able; two are well known: Rev. Hugh Evans AM, principal of the Bristol Academy, and Rev Caleb Evans DD, his successor, the same who died in 1791, having survived his father only about nine years. ....
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