Apostle and Benefactor

Three and a half centuries ago a mercer's son who was to enrich the lives of his countrymen, though not with silks and fineries, was born in the town of Carmarthen. Like most of our knowledge of his early life, the year of his birth is uncertain, but it is generally thought to be 1622. He grew up to become an apostle and benefactor, but not without suffering the persecutions of an intolerant age. His name was Stephen Hughes.

He was the son of John Hughes, who was to be an alderman and, in 1650, mayor of Carmarthen, and it is possible that he was a pupil of the grammar school that had been founded by Queen Elizabeth in the town during the previous century. Little more is known about his activities until he received the living of Meidrim in 1654, though it is probable that he served earlier in the neighbouring parish of Merthyr. These livings he received following the ejection of the clergy during the earlier years of the Commonwealth, but after the Restoration it was the turn of Hughes and his fellow Dissenters to be ejected and he was deprived of his living in 1662. Later he married a devout and industrious woman in Swansea, where he settled for the rest of his life.

Despite his move to Swansea, Hughes continued to preach in Carmarthenshire, establishing new churches and tending those which he had set up earlier from about the year 1650. He travelled tirelessly all over the county and into south Cardiganshire, and among the congregations he gathered together were those at Carmarthen, Capel Isaac, Henllan, Pantteg, Pencader, Llanybri, Llanedi and Trelech. Most of the Congregational churches in the county are off-shoots of these early foundations.

The first decade of the Restoration was a difficult one for Dissenters and meetings had perforce to be shrouded in secrecy, usually in remote places. Associated with Hughes during this period was the cave at Cwmhwplin near Llandysul. A story is told that while on his way to preach there he saw a company of people dancing in a field and to their leader he said, "If you will accompany me over the mountain, you shall have a better amusement than you can get here." The man accepted the invitation and was astonished to see so large a number in such an inhospitable place. Nevertheless, he was greatly affected and remained a follower of Stephen Hughes. But Hughes was always in fear of arrest, a fate which at last over-took him, with the result that he was incarcerated at Carmarthen "to the prejudice of his health and hazard of his life".

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