William Williams of Pantycelyn

11 February 1717—11 January 1791

The Great Awakening of the eighteenth century extended into Wales at an early date and was greatly promoted by the apostolic labors of the REV. WILLIAM WILLIAMS. He was born (1717) at Cefnycoed, near Llandovery, Caermarthenshire. He was educated for the medical profession. The stirring preaching of the zealous Howell Harris, in Talgarth church-yard, was blessed to his conversion. He devoted himself to the Church, and after a due course of preparation, having been ordained (1740) a deacon, was presented to two small churches in Breconshire, about twelve miles from Llandovery. Following the example of Harris, Whitefield, and the Wesleys, he abounded in pulpit service and extended his labors all over the country. Nearly a score of times, he was summoned before his diocesan and tried for these irregularities. For the same reason he was denied ordination to the priesthood.

He now withdrew from the Church of England and entered the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Connection as an itinerant preacher, associating himself with the eminent Daniel Rowlands, one of the most successful preachers of the day. In 1739, he married Miss Mary Francis, in whom he found an admirable companion and adviser. Taking the Principality as his field of labor, he went everywhere preaching the Word to his countrymen, and winning thousands to “the truth as it is in Jesus.” During a ministry of forty-five years, he seldom travelled less than forty miles a week, or 2,000 miles a year. He resided, when at home, at Pantycelyn, in the parish of Llanfair-ar-y-bryn, near Llandovery.

At one of the meetings of the Association with which he was connected, a trial was made of the poetic gifts of the several preachers present, and such was the manifest superiority of Williams, that he was urged to cultivate the gift, and prepare an evangelical psalmody for the Connection. He prepared a book of Welsh Hymns, which was published as the Aleluia. It was printed (1744–1747) in six parts at Bristol. Another book, called Caniadau y rhai sydd ar y Môr o Wydr (“The Songs of Those Upon the Sea of Glass”) followed in 1762; still another, entitled Ffarwel weledig (“The Visible Farewell”); and a fourth, called Haleliua drachefn (“Alleluia again”). These books, gathered subsequently into one volume, were speedily adopted, and are still used by the churches in the Principality of Wales.

Shortly after his first Aleluia, he published, in verse, “A View of the Kingdom of Christ”; also, a translation of Erskine on “The Assurance of Faith”; also (1781) a sort of Pilgrim’s Progress, called Theomemphus, and an excellent book by the name of Pantheologia. He wrote not less than forty elegies, one of them for Whitefield (1771), of considerable length.

His prose writings were not so numerous. Besides other and smaller works, he published (1768) “Three Men from Sodom and Egypt”; and later, “The Crocodile of the River of Egypt.” Though not as familiar with the English as with the old British tongue, he composed many hymns in English, fifty-one of which were published at Bristol (1769) with the title Hosannah to the Son of David; or Hymns of Praise to God for our Glorious Redemption by Christ. Some of them were translations of his Welsh hymns. In 1772, he published his Gloria in Excelsis; or Hymns of Praise to God and the Lamb. It contained seventy-one hymns, the last of which was divided into seven parts. These two volumes were reproduced in one (1859) by Mr. Daniel Sedgwick of London. The latter of the two is said to have been composed at the request of Lady Huntingdon.

He died after a lingering and painful illness at his home, January 11, 1791, aged seventy-three years. The Gentleman’s Magazine speaks of him as “a clergyman of distinguished talents and character.” It says, “In early life, a pious but amiable enthusiasm induced him to adopt the itinerant, but apostolic, mode of Methodism, and uniting a talent for poetry to an insinuating and captivating eloquence, he contributed greatly to its prevalence and support. . . . Many of his hymns have the property of the ode, true poetic fire, striking imagery, and glowing expressions, united with the plaintive muse of the country. Their effect on the people is astonishing, and the veneration in which they are held is little short of devotion. . . . His imagination gave variety and interest to his orations; his piety was warm, yet candid and charitable; his manners simple, yet affectionate and obliging; and his moral conduct without blemish or imputation.”[1]

by EDWIN HATFIELD
Poets of the Church (1884)

1. “Deaths,” The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 61, no. 1 (January 1791), p. 91.

Featured Hymns:

Guide me, O thou great Jehovah

Collections of Hymns & Poems (Welsh):

Aleluia neu, Casgliad o hymnau

[Part 1] (Carmarthen, 1744): NLW
[Part 1, 2nd ed.] (1744): NLW
[Part 2] (Bristol, 1745): NLW
[Part 3] (Bristol, 1745): NLW
[Part 4] (Bristol, 1746): NLW
[Part 5] (Bristol, 1747): NLW
[Part 6] (Bristol, 1747): NLW
[2nd ed. / Combined ed.] (1749): NLW
[3rd ed.] (1758): NLW
[4th ed.] (1775): NLW

Hosanna i fab Dafydd, neu gasgliad o hymnau

[Part 1] (1751): NLW
[Part 2] (1753): NLW
[Part 3] (1754): NLW

Rhai hymnau a chaniadau duwiol ar amryw ystyrjaethau (1757): NLW

Caniadau y rhai sydd ar y mor o wydr

[1st ed.] (1762): NLW
[2nd ed.] (1763):
Hymnau newyddion (1764): NLW
[3rd ed.] (1764): NLW
Rhai hymnau newyddion (1773): NLW
[4th ed.] (1773): NLW

Ffarwel weledig, groesaw anweledig bethau neu rhai hymnau o fawl i Dduw a’r Oen

[1st ed.] (1763): NLW
[2nd ed.] (1766): NLW
[3rd ed.] (1769): NLW

Gloria in excelsis: neu hymnau o fawl i Dduw a’r Oen

[1st ed.] (1771): NLW
[2nd ed.] (1772): NLW

Antinomiaeth, bwbach y rhan ffurfiol o’r Eglwys Grist’nogol, . . . Ym mywyd y Parchedig Mr John [h.y. Joseph] Hart . . . At ba un y ’chwanegwyd rhai hymnau ar fesur newydd (1774): NLW

Ychydig hymnau, ar fesur newydd (1774): NLW

Marwnad Mr. Evan Williams, o Faesgenffordd, yn agos i’r Garth, yn Sir Frecheiniog . . . a foddodd yn yr Afon Gwy . . . 1776 . . . Atba un y chwanegwyd Hymn (1776): NLW

Hanes troedigaeth ryfedd a hynod y Parchedig Mr Thomas Goodwin . . . Ynghyd a rhai hymnau, ar fesurau newyddion (1779): NLW

Rhai hymnau newyddion,—ar fersurau newyddion

[1st ed.] (1781): NLW
[2nd ed.] (1781): NLW
[3rd ed.] (1781): NLW
(1782): NLW
[2nd ed.] (1782): NLW
(1787): NLW
(1787): NLW

Haleliua drachefn: neu dair rhan o’r hymnau gyfenwyd Ffarwel weledig, groesaw, anweledig bethau (1791): NLW

Collections of Hymns & Poems (English):

Hosannah to the Son of David; or Hymns of Praise to God (1759): NLW

Gloria in Excelsis: or Hymns of Praise to God and the Lamb (1772): NLW

Editions:

Holl weithiau, prydyddawl a rhyddieithol, y diweddar Barch. William Williams, Pant-y-Celyn, edited by J.R. Kilsby Jones (London: William Mackenzie, [1867]): Google

The Printed Works of William Williams, Pantycelyn; National Library of Wales: NLW

Related Resources:

Edward Morgan, Ministerial Record or, Brief Account of the Great Progress of Religion Under the Ministry of Rev. W. Williams, of Pantycelyn, Carmarthenshire (London 1847): Google

N. Cynhafal Jones, Gweithiau Williams Pant-y-Celyn (Holywell, 1887).

J.H.D., “The Printed Works of Williams Pantycelyn,” Cylchgrawn Cymdeithas Hanes y Methodistiaid Calfinaidd [The Journal of the Calvinistic Methodist Historical Society], vol. 3, no. 2 (Dec. 1917), pp. 59–66: HathiTrust

J. H. Davies, Rhestr o lyfrau gan y Parch William Williams Pantycelyn a argraffwyd rhwng 1744 a 1800 (Carmarthen 1918): HathiTrust

Saunders Lewis, Williams Pantycelyn (London 1927).

Gomer Morgan Roberts, “William Williams (1717–1791), Methodist cleric, author, and hymn-writer,” Dictionary of Welsh Biography (1959): https://biography.wales/article/s-WILL-WIL-1717

H.A. Hodges, “Williams Pantycelyn, father of the modern Welsh hymn,” HSGBI Bulletin 135 (Feb. 1976), pp. 145–152; 136 (June 1976), pp. 161–166.

Stephen James Turner, Theological themes in the English works of Williams Pantycelyn, M.Th. Thesis (Univeristy of Wales Aberystwyth, 1982).

Glyn Tegai Hughes, Writers of Wales, Williams Pantycelyn (Cardiff, 1983).

Faith Cook, “Poet of the Revival: William Williams,” Our Hymn Writers and Their Hymns (Darlington, England: EP Books, 2005), pp. 125–144: Amazon

Eifion Evans, Bread of Heaven: The Life and Work of William Williams, Pantycelyn (Bridgend: Bryntirion Press, 2010): Amazon

E. Wyn James, “The longing and the legacy: Liturgy and life in the hymns of William Williams of Pantycelyn,” HSGBI Bulletin 286, vol. 21, no. 5 (Winter 2016), pp. 163–78.

H.A. Hodges, Flame in the Mountains: William Pantycelyn, Ann Griffiths and the Welsh Hymn, edited by E. Wyn James (Ceredigion, Wales: Y Lolfa, 2017): Amazon

Alan Luff, “William Williams,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology: CDH

Derec Llwyd Morgan, “William Williams (1717–1791),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004): ODNB

William Williams Pantycelyn Tomb and Memorial, Llanfair ar y Bryn: https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/467/

Williams Pantycelyn Memorial Chapel, English Presbyterian and Calvinistic Methodist, Llandovery: https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/6369/