This article first appeared in the Evangelical Magazine
The online Dictionary of Welsh Biography says that Micah Thomas was ‘devout, scholarly, and resolute of will’ and that he ‘stood for a better-educated ministry, and strove to supply it.’ His administrative skills and discipline were criticised as was his Calvinistic orthodoxy, but he was undeterred and ‘his ideals eventually prevailed’, the importance of his work being gratefully recognised. Between 1807 and 1836, he taught over a hundred ministerial students, three of whom went on to head Baptist colleges themselves, in Pontypool, Haverfordwest and Llangollen.
Monmouthshire
Little is known of his early life, but Thomas was born on the Caldicot levels, in Whitson, on February 19, 1778. His pious farmer parents belonged to New Inn Independent Church, Pontypool. While Micah was still young, they moved to a farm in Llangibby. He was educated first at Tredunnock, then at Trosnant, Pontypool. Though taught by Anglican clergymen, when only 17, he was baptised by immersion and joined Penygarn Welsh Baptist Church, Pontypool. The following year, 1796, he began to preach.
England
Micah soon entered Bristol Baptist College under Dr John Ryland and remained there nearly two years. He was ordained on September 29, 1802, as minister at Ryeford, near Ross, Herefordshire, where he had often preached as a student. There he met his first wife, a widow twenty years his senior, Sophia Wall, née Pritchard.
Abergavenny
Many in Wales had long recognised the need for a better-educated, better-trained ministry. First Presbyterians and Independents, then, in the 1730s, Baptists sought to remedy the situation. At Penygarn, Miles Harry and his brother-in-law John Griffith, manager of Pontypool Iron Works and probably the prime mover, started an academy at Trosnant that did good service for several years but ceased to function sometime around 1761. Baptists wanting to train for ministry now had to travel to Bristol to be educated (in English). It was nearby, had high standards, and was led by Welshman, Hugh Evans and his son Caleb Evans, but Welshmen educated there often settled in England, and it was increasingly felt that Wales needed its own college.
It was at the home of John Harris, in Abergavenny, that things came to a head in 1805. John’s wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Miles Harry’s son, Caleb Harris, one-time minister at Llanwenarth, was talking the matter over with her daughters when the surgeon, Isaac Wyke (1770-1835), joined them. Either he, or perhaps it was Thomas himself, suggested that an academy be started in the town. After a lengthy discussion, a proposal was brought to the association (then meeting at Penygarn) the next day, and it was approved. Elizabeth went to Bristol to collect funds, receiving gifts from Caleb Evans’ widow, Sarah, and others. Extensive preparations went on through 1805 and 1806. A committee was appointed, and Thomas was elected tutor. On the first day of 1807, the academy opened with one student, Jonathan Davies of Capel Iwan, Carmarthenshire. Two others joined him the next month.
Students lived in rented rooms in the town and came for tuition to Thomas’ home, Aenon House, in the Pen-y-Pound area. In his capable hands, the academy grew in strength, usefulness and influence. Never large and with a necessarily modest curriculum, it was greatly used to advance the kingdom in Wales. Over 29 years, many men, some very able, were trained and became ministers.
It is unclear at what point the idea arose, but as well as tutoring, Thomas also became minister of a small new English Baptist Church, later on Frogmore Street. It prospered under his ministry, though sadly there was a secession in 1827 when Bethany, Abergavenny, was founded. With increasing honour and commanding influence, Thomas remained pastor until his death, November 28, 1853, and is buried in the church burial-ground.
Fullerism
Over the years, Thomas increasingly faced criticism by hardline Calvinists who considered him Arminian. This was because he opposed high Calvinism, preferring the soteriology of Jonathan Edwards and Andrew Fuller, whom he once spoke of as ‘that extraordinary and illustrious character’. A highlight in Thomas’ life was in 1812, when Fuller made his one visit to Wales to preach. It only lasted a week, but he made a powerful impression, and during his visit, he enjoyed good fellowship with the great Christmas Evans, who very much appreciated his ministry.
With regard to the college, matters came to a head in the early thirties, when five students complained that Thomas referred more often to John Wesley than John Gill. They left to join William Jones of Bethany, Cardiff. Thomas’ resignation, early in 1836, however, was probably more to do with his health. In 1828, a tumour had been removed from his left knee in London, and in the ensuing years, the exacting demands of his double role proved too much. On March 9, 1836, a committee convened to consider the academy’s future and decided on a transfer to Pontypool, under Thomas Thomas. It remained there until moving to Cardiff in 1893.
Character
Thomas had no children of his own. His first wife died in 1829, and the next year he married Elizabeth Harris’ sister, Rachel Harris.
Devout and earnest, Thomas sought to spread the gospel at home and abroad. Competent in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, he was widely read. Contemporaries considered him to be an able theologian, a cultured and independent thinker, and an erudite and accurate scholar. As a tutor, he could lead without being harsh. As a preacher, he was scriptural and expository, working out his themes with logical precision and thoroughness, but in language, it is suggested, above the understanding of many hearers. As a pastor, he was kind, sympathetic and generous to the poor and needy.
A convinced Baptist, he was ever ready to affirm and defend their distinctive principles but was no sectarian. Local vicar, Canon William Powell, was a close friend.
A letter can be found among Chartist paper archives written by Thomas, urging mercy toward John Frost and others convicted following the Chartist riots in November 1839. He was able to get their sentences commuted to transportation for life.
Lessons
Being dead, he yet speaks. He reminds us of the vital need for an educated ministry and the importance of Fuller’s moderate Calvinism. Be firm in your convictions about baptism and other matters, but with a catholic spirit that accepts all true believers. In our generation, let us seek to be as diligent, devout and disciplined as he was in his.
