Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

The Passing of a Great Churchman. By Emeritus Professor T. Witton Davies, D.D. THE death of the late Archdeacon Henry William Watkins, M.A., D.D., of Durham, has not received the attention that it deserves in the Welsh press, for he was a Welsman by blood and sentiment, and also a great scholar, an extensive and able writer, and one of the most commanding person- alities of his time. He had been favoured with an immunity from sickness such as falls to the lot of few mortals, for he never remembered to have required the services of a medical man. He was on a visit to friends at Brighton in July and August, 1922, and on the afternoon of Thursday, August 30th, he had a party of friends to meet him, and was as full of fun and animation as ever. After his friends had left him he took a walk alone, and on his way home he had a slight fainting fit, and fell, but soon recovered and walked home. That was his first illness and his last, for he retired earlier than usual, complaining of weakness, but nothing serious was feared. In the morning, however, he was found dead in bed, having succumbed in his sleep. Though he was in his 79th year, his Durham colleagues felt when he left the city for Brighton in July, 1922, that he was yet capable of a goodly amount of valuable work. He was less known in Wales than he ought to have been. But his career from early manhood had been spen in England, and in places compara- tively remote from the Principality. Two or three years after school days he spent in Jamaica -see below. But he never ceased to take a deep interest in the affairs of his fellow-country- men and he well merited a place in the Who's Who in Wales," though it was not accorded him. William Henry Watkins came of a family of Welsh Churchmen and freeholders long settled in the county of Monmouth. His mother was the only daughter of Mr. Thomas Dew (a common Welsh name), of Trevetherine Court. He was born in January, 1844, at the New House Farm, Abergavenny; soon after his birth, however, his parents removed to Wern-y- Cwm farm in the same parish. Though Mon- mouthshire is usually reckoned as belonging to England, it is more Welsh in language and sentiment than many parts of the twelve counties of Wales proper. Professor A. H. Sayer, D.D., the great Assyrologist, Sir Isambard Owen, late Principal of the Bristol University, the "Tramp" Poet, W. H. Davies, all claim, though natives of Monmouthshire, to be genuine Welshmen. The same was true, as I can testify from personal knowledge, of the late Archdeacon Watkins; and if I may compare small things with great, I make such a claim on my own behalf, though I was born in the same county, my birthplace being Nantyglo, some seven or eight miles from the birthplace of my old friend, the late Archdeacon of Durham; and I am able to speak, read and write in the language of my Cymric forefathers. (My father was, however, a native of Glamorganshire). I have met old men having a personal acquaint- ance withe the Watkinses of Wern-y-Cwm, who told me that the latter were among the most substantial and highly esteemed of the gentlemen farmers in the district. Young Watkins was educated first of all at the Brynderrw Endowed Church School, in the parish of L,lantilio Cressenny, between Aber- gavenny and Monmouth, and then at the Grammar School, Monmouth. At the close of his school life an incident occurred which had a far-reaching effect upon his subsequent career. He was persuaded by a distant relative, with his parents' permission, to accompany him to Jamaica. This relative was an ardent Wesleyan, and, under his strong religous influence, the lad cast in his lot with the Wesleyan body, and soon began to exercise his gifts as a preacher in the Wesleyan pulpits of the country in which he was now residing. His preaching proved so acceptable that he was encouraged to offer him- self for the Wesleyan ministry in the home land. An application to the Wesleyan Conference in this country, backed by strong testimonials as to character and pulpit gifts, led to his accept- ance at a student into the Richmond Wesleyan College, London, and from 1862 to 1865 he was an inmate of that institution. After leaving the College he travelled in but one Circuit, for before the full period had expired he had resolved to return to the Church in which he had been reared, and in which afterwards he rendered distinguished service for over half a century. Though he remained in the Wesleyan body but some half a dozen years, he carried with him to the end of his days some of the outstanding characteristics of the Methodist preacher: he never read his sermons, though he carefully prepared them his delivery was fervid and even passionate, and in the matter of his sermons he invariably laid most stress upon the great centralities of the evangelical faith. Watkins's brief association with the Wes- leyans reminds me of a pleasant evening I spent in April, 1908, in his bachelor rooms with the late Minor Canon William Greenwell, M.A., B.C.L., F.R.S., F.S.A., of Durham, the well- known authority on archaeology, and the author of many reputable books on the subject. He had at the time just passed his 86th birthday, and lived another ten years. Finding I was in religion a Baptist, had, in fact, been baptized in the very river that was only a few minutes away from the scene of our talk, he urged me to stick to the faith in which I was reared. He had, he