Philip Pugh (1679 – 12 July 1760) was aWelsh minister.
Pugh was a dissenting minister, was born at Hendref, Blaenpenal,Cardiganshire, in 1679, and inherited a good estate. He was trained for the independent ministry at the nonconformist college at Brynllŵarch, nearBridgend,Glamorganshire. This college, the earliest institution of the kind in Wales, and the parent of the existingpresbyterian college atCarmarthen, was founded by Samuel Jones after he was ejected from the living ofLlangynwyd in 1662, and on Jones's death in 1697 was transferred toAbergavenny, whither Pugh accompanied it. He was received as church member at Cilgwyn in 1704, and in October 1709 was ordained co-pastor with David Edwards andJenkin Jones. His social position as a landed proprietor in the county was improved by his marriage with an heiress of the neighbourhood, while his power as a preacher and his piety gave him widespread influence. He and his colleagues were in charge of six or eight churches, with a united membership of about one thousand. Between 1709 and 1760 he baptised 680 children.
Pugh avoided controversy, but he regarded with abhorrence theArminian doctrines introduced by Jenkin Jones and theArian doctrines propagated by David Lloyd (1725–1779). He sympathised, however, with theCalvinistic Methodist movement underDaniel Rowlands, and induced Rowlands to modify the ferocity of his early manner of preaching. Of the churches with which Pugh was more or less connected, three continue to becongregationalist, three have gone over to the Methodists, and three areUnitarian.
Pugh died on 12 July 1760, aged 81, and was buried in the parish churchyard ofLlanddewi Brevi, where the effigy of one Philip Pugh, probably an ancestor, once figured in the chancel. His unpublished diary and the Cilgwyn church-book contain much information about the Welsh nonconformity of the period, and have been utilised by Dr. Thomas Rees and other Welsh historians.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Jones, Rees M. Jenkin (1896). "Pugh, Philip". InLee, Sidney (ed.).Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 47. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
