Voices and influences
Howell Harris
The Welsh schoolmaster who was never ordained, was beaten by mobs for preaching anyway, and lit the revival in Wales.
Summary
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- Lived 1714 to 1773, Welsh.
Howell Harris
- Lived
- 1714 to 1773
- Nation
- Welsh
- Tradition
- Calvinistic Methodist
Own words
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The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Howell Harris went to communion at Talgarth church in the spring of 1735 to settle his own soul and came away certain of God. Within weeks he was going house to house telling his neighbors what had happened, and within months crowds were gathering. He was refused ordination four times — the bishops would not have a hedge preacher — so he stayed a layman and kept going, riding Wales end to end, sometimes preaching several times a day, often meeting fists and stones. His real genius was follow-up: he gathered converts into seiadau, small societies where they were taught, questioned, and held to account, and that structure is why the Welsh revival lasted. A bitter split with Daniel Rowland in 1750 sent him home to Trefeca, where he built a community of about a hundred and twenty people who farmed, worked trades, and prayed together. He and Rowland were reconciled before the end.