DAVI(E)S, RICHARD (1658-1714), Independent minister;
a Cardiganshire man [from Llechryd, as some have it], he was at first a schoolmaster in London, but in 1689 was ordained minister of the Congregational church at Rothwell (‘Rowell’), Northants. His ministry there provoked much controversy among Dissenters: (1) he was accused of teaching Antinomian doctrines; (2) his use of ‘revivalistic’ methods in preaching and his extensive employment of lay itinerants, were repugnant to the more academic of his fellow-ministers; (3) his insistence on ‘congregational’ church-government and his hostility to ‘a Presbyterian classis’ greatly influenced English Congregationalists in their decision to abandon the ‘Union’ of 1690 between Presbyterians and Independents. Daniel Williams (q.v.) was one of Davis's chief critics. In 1692 the Common Fund stopped its grant to Davis, and thus expelled him from the ‘Union.’ He d. 10 September 1714. His successor at Rothwell was Mathias Maurice (q.v.).
Bibliography:
- R. W. Dale, Hist. of Eng. Congregationalism, 479-80;
- Gordon MS., 1917, 184-7;
- D. M. Lewis in Y Cofiadur, 1925, 31-4;
- Trans. Congl. Hist. Soc., ii, 128, vii, 224, and more especially vi, 389;
- [Jeremy Owen, Golwg ar y Beiau (Univ. of Wales reprint, 1950)].
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D., F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor.
