William Thomas (Islwyn)

The Rev. WILLIAM THOMAS (Islwyn) was born at Mynydd-islwyn, in the county of Monmouth, April 3, 1832. His life was spent in the secluded and undisturbed neighbourhood of his birth; and there he died November 20, 1878. Purposing in his early youth to become a land surveyor, at the age of twenty-two the inward impulse led him to the pulpit. He was ordained at Llangeitho Association in 1859, but he never took a pastoral charge. He suffered much from melancholy. In consequence his preaching engagements were not kept as faithfully as they should have been. Sometimes an elder would announce him in the following significant terms: 'Islwyn will preach here next Sunday--if he comes.'