LEWIS, MOSES (fl. 1748-1800), Methodist exhorter, afterwards an Antinomian;
son of Arthur Lewis of Fron, Brymbo, Denbs. He was one of the founders of the church in Adwy'r Clawdd and it was to his house that Peter Williams (q.v.) fled after his persecution in 1748. He began to exhort c. 1750. In 1751 he adhered to the party of Howel Harris (q.v.), but soon repudiated him and refused to join his ‘Family’ at Trevecka. He became an Antinomian and established a small following in the Clwyd valley and in Caernarvonshire. He is named with Thomas Sheen (q.v.), Thomas Meredith (q.v.), and other prominent Antinomians, and in 1763 was referred to as one who preached the doctrines of the Relly brothers (qq.v.). Towards the end of his life he abandoned religion altogether; he d. an ‘old man’ c. 1800.
Bibliography:
- Robert Jones (Rhoslan), Drych yr Amseroedd, 1820, 136;
- Hanes Meth. Cymru, i, 149, 409;
- W. Hobley, Meth. Arfon, ii, 135;
- Cymm., xlv, 68;
- E. P. Jones, Meth. (Gal.) Dinbych, 55;
- H. Ll. Williams, Hanes y M.C. yn Adwy'r Clawdd, 29, 33, 39.
Author:
Rev. Gomer Morgan Roberts, M.A., (1904-93), Pont-rhyd-y-fen / St Dogmael's / Llandybïe
