Francis, Benjamin

Author

b nr Pen-y-Gelli, nr Newcastle Emlyn, Dyfed (Carmarthens) 1734, d Horsley, nr Stroud, Glos 1799. He grew up in Swansea and was baptized there at the age of 15. At 19 he began to preach and went on to study at Bristol Baptist Academy (now College). Around 1755 he assisted in ministry at Broadmead, Bristol, and after a first pastorate at Chipping Sodbury, Glos, he was appointed to the Baptist Ch at Horsley and ministered there for 42 more years. He wrote hymns in English, 5 of which featured in Jn Rippon’s Selection, but in Wales he is better known for some of his 200 texts in Welsh. His other published poems included 2 satirical pieces on ‘the baptismal controversy’ and more serious blank-verse elegies on the death of Geo Whitefield (1770) and John Gill (1771), the latter a work of 282 lines. No.637*.