JENKINS, WALTER (d. 1661), early Welsh Quaker;
b. in the mansion of Pant, Llanfihangel Ystum (‘Ystern’) Llewern, Mon., son of Thomas Jenkins, squire and rector of that parish (d. 1649). The son met George Fox, so Fox says, in a conference in Leicestershire in 1655. When in 1657 Fox visited South Wales, ‘Justice Jenkins’ was with him at a meeting in a church somewhere between Brecon and Pontypool. He suffered for his Quakerism; at the end of Jan. 1660 he was haled from his bed and locked up ‘in an old castle’; next day he was taken to Monmouth, and had an oath tendered to him — on his refusal, he was imprisoned at Monmouth. He d. 30 May 1661, according to his tombstone in the burial ground at Pant which he had given to the Friends. Quaker services were held at Pant up to the end of the 18th cent.; the house came later on into the possession of Sir Joseph Bradney (q.v.), the antiquary. Jenkins's book, The Law given forth out of Zion, published 1663, was translated into Welsh by his grandson Elisha Beadles (q.v.).
Bibliography:
- Bradney, Monmouthshire, I, i, 130;
- Jnl. W.B.S., i, 178, 211;
- T. M. Rees, Hist. Quakers in Wales;
- Llyfr. y Cym., 305.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D., F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor.
