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Remembrance of Nonconformist and other chapels in The Rhondda

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Welsh Church Commission - Evidence of: Rev. John Humphreys - 15th October, 1907 <<>>

27000. (Chairman) Have you been a working minister yourself; have you ever had a church yourself? - Yes, for 21 years.

27001. You begin your proof with a short historical sketch? - That is so.

27001. We do not like history much, but it is a very short sketch........It does not go into controversial matter? - I do not want to press it at all. I thought perhaps you would like to have a sort of birds's eye view of the begining.

27004. When Wesleyanism first came to Wales there was no distinction between England and Wales except to the extent that the preachers happened to be preaching on Welsh soil to Welsh people? - That is so.

27005. Now, as I understand it, there is Welsh Wesleyan Methodism? - We have three districts covering the whole of Wales.

27006'.........At first Welsh Methodism was but a mission connected with the English work in Wales. Today, it exists in three separate districts:- (1) The South Wales District; (2) the I. North Wales; (3) the II. North Wales. English Methodism forms another strong and flourishing district, which is called 'Cardiff and Swansea District'........'

27010. (Archdeacon Owen Evans) May I ask what you mean by 'Welsh Methodism' there? - Welsh Wesleyan Methodism.

27011. I do not know whther it is a little misleading, because in Wales we generally understand by 'Methodism,' 'Calvinistic Methodism'? - They are the strong body in Wales, but in England they scarcely exist, and we use the same word of ourselves in Wales as is recognised in England. we are the Methodists of England and we use the word in Wales. 'Many who were dissatisfied with high Calvinistic doctrine looked and prayed for better things........'

27014. Your Year Book, as we call it, includes English Methodist chapels and Welsh Methodist chapels. Have you a separate Welsh Year Book? - No, we have not; it is the same 'Minutes of Conference'; it includes both. 'The general spurintendency of the Welsh work'--

27015. Again I do not think we want that; that is all personal history?- 'At the Conference of 1816 the whole work in Wales was divided into three districts; ..........and (3) the Ruthin District (Welsh)............Between 1827 and 1828 was another period of success, and at a later date the extingencies of the work called for the division of the work into two Welsh Districts:- (1) The Second South Wales District. This had eight circuits, sixteen ministers, and 3,299 communicants.'

27016. Where do you get your figures from? - From a volume recently published, 'The History of the First Hundred Years in Wales,' which I have with me.

27017. We prefer to have church documents if we can, and not lay histories? - That is pretty far back. Of course it would be contained in the Minutes of Conference, but that is very far back.

27019. These are the books that I have here? - Yes. '...........Various statistical items. Church accommodation..........

27021. But the full statistics for the district that have been supplied with regard to other districts have not yet arrived? - Not the details yet. 'The details of the Welsh churches of South Wales are given in the printed statistical book for that district. Of the 'Cardiff and Swansea' (English district of South Wales) only a summary is given, supplied from the connectional registers by the Rev. Henry Adams, the financial secretary of that district. All the figures are taken form registers which are carefully kept for connectional purposes.'

27022. You got this from these book. Which one must I take for the first thing, 'Number of Circuits and Chapels. South Wales District'? - The largest of the three.

27033. I should rather like to know on what authority this is made up. From what did we receive this? - I can explain that. Of course the material is kept in Connexional registers in every superintending minister's house. It is kept for Connexional purposes and reported year by year apart from this Commission altogether. Then schedules were prepared to send to every superintending minister, asking him to fill in these schedules from the registers under his care-in his possession-and I have a specimin here that I can hand to you.

[I copy the extract from schedules for the two Rhondda circuits.]

(Sir Francis Edwards) You include the county of Merioneth in your South Wales District? - Only a few Churches; it is counties and parishes, and not circuits. Of course, we have circuits; several churches in my circuit might belong to one parish and some to another, so the arrangement in these books is on counties and in parishes, and not in circuits. ..........