Philip Pugh (1679 – 12 July 1760) was a Welsh minister.

Biography

Pugh was a dissenting minister, was born at Hendref, Blaenpenal,

Cardiganshire Ceredigion ( , , ) is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Cere ...

, in 1679, and inherited a good estate. He was trained for the independent ministry at the nonconformist college at Brynllŵarch, near Bridgend, Glamorganshire. This college, the earliest institution of the kind in Wales, and the parent of the existing presbyterian college at Carmarthen, was founded by Samuel Jones after he was ejected from the living of Llangynwyd in 1662, and on Jones's death in 1697 was transferred to

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; cy, Y Fenni , archaically ''Abergafenni'' meaning "mouth of the River Gavenny") is a market town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a ''Gateway to Wales''; it is approximately from the border wi ...

, 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 and

Jenkin Jones Jenkin Jones may refer to: * Jenkin Jones (captain) (1623–?), Welsh captain, Puritan cleric and preacher * Jenkin Jones (pastor) (1700?–1742), Welsh Arminian pastor and writer * Jenkin Lloyd Jones (1843–1918), American Unitarian minister * J ...

. 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 the

Arminian Arminianism is a branch of Protestantism based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) and his historic supporters known as Remonstrants. Dutch Arminianism was originally articulated in the ''Re ...

doctrines introduced by Jenkin Jones and the

Arian Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God t ...

doctrines propagated by David Lloyd (1725–1779). He sympathised, however, with the

Calvinistic Methodist Calvinistic Methodists were born out of the 18th-century Welsh Methodist revival and survive as a body of Christians now forming the Presbyterian Church of Wales. Calvinistic Methodism became a major denomination in Wales, growing rapidly in the 1 ...

movement under Daniel 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 be congregationalist, three have gone over to the Methodists, and three are Unitarian. Pugh died on 12 July 1760, aged 81, and was buried in the parish churchyard of Llanddewi 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pugh, Philip 1679 births 1760 deaths 17th-century Welsh clergy 18th-century Welsh clergy Welsh Protestant ministers and clergy