William Howels

The eldest of 12 children of Samuel Howells, he was born in September 1778 at Llwynhelyg, a farmhouse near Cowbridge in Glamorgan.

[1] An elegy by Howels on his tutor Walton in 1797, published in the Gloucester Journal, was noticed by Robert Raikes, who offered him journalistic work.

At Oxford he was under Baptist influence; but he was ordained by Richard Watson, bishop of Llandaff, in June 1804, to the curacy of Llangan in Glamorgan.

His strongly evangelical sermons were popular, and his self-denying life, though with eccentricities, baffled critics.

[1] Howels died on 18 November 1832, and was buried in a vault under Holy Trinity Church, Cloudesley Square, Islington.