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This article is about the Welsh Methodist preacher. For the professor of history, see Howell Harris (historian).

Howell Harris
Born	(1714-01-23)23 January 1714 Talgarth, Brecknockshire, Wales
Died	21 July 1773(1773-07-21) (aged 59)
Resting place	Talgarth
Occupation	Preacher
Known for	Founder of the Calvinistic Methodist Church

Howell Harris (Welsh: Howel Harris; 23 January 1714 – 21 July 1773) was a Calvinistic Methodist evangelist. He was one of the main leaders of the Welsh Methodist revival during The First Great Awakening in the 18th century, along with Daniel Rowland, William Williams Pantycelyn, and George Whiteman. Before he was ordained a minister he was not allowed to preach at a church and had to resort to preaching outdoors, becoming the first Methodist open-open-air preacher. He was with William Steward on a preaching tour in England when Seward was martyred by an angry mob, incited by members of the Anglican clergy.

Early life

Teulu Trefeca (the building is depicted here in 1860 when in use as a Calvinistic Methodist College)

Memorial; Trefeca.

Harris was born at Trefeca, near Talgarth in Brecknockshire on 23 January 1714. He was the youngest of five children of Howell Powel, alias Harris (c. 1672–1731), a carpenter, and his wife, Susannah (died 1751), daughter of Thomas Powell. their youngest son, Howel, was born 23 January 1714 and was educated at Llwyn-llwyd. From 1732 to 1735 Harris was a schoolmaster at Llan-gors and Llangasty. The family originally hailed from Carmarthenshire, but had settled in Trefeca in 1700, where Howell Sr had purchased a small landholding. Harris's oldest brother Joseph trained as a blacksmith, but went on to secure a post at the Royal Mint after studying in London. His other brother Thomas made his name as a tailor to wealthy clients and amassed enough income to purchase estates in Tregunter and Trefeca, and other properties nearby. He served as High Sheriff of Brecknockshire in 1768.

Conversion and ministry

Harris underwent religious conversion in March 1735 after hearing a parish-church sermon by the Rev. Pryce Davies on the Sunday before Easter, on the necessity of partaking of Holy Communion. This led to several weeks of self-examination, which reached a climax at Communion on Whit Sunday, May 1735. After what is described as answering the devil's accusations, he received Communion and became convinced he had received mercy through the blood of Christ, which gave him a sense of great joy. He immediately began to tell others of this and hold meetings in his home to encourage others to seek the same assurance of Christ's forgiveness.

He failed to be accepted for ordination in the Church of England because of views held to be "Methodist". Instead he became a travelling preacher, tirelessly determined to spread the word through Wales. His preaching often led him into personal danger, persecution and hardship before he gained a following. From 1738 he was supported by Marmaduke Gwynne, a local squire and early convert.

In March, 1739, Harris met George Whitefield for the first time when Whitefield and his traveling companion, William Seward, visited South Wales Church pulpits were denied him, but through the influence of Seward he was permitted to preach in the town hall in Cardiff.

At Cowbridge, in 1740, Harris met with William Seward, with whom he traveled and preached in various Welsh towns. He was accompanying Seward while he was preaching a sermon at Newport. They were attacked by an incited angry mob, who tore at their clothing and pelted them with stones and other handy objects. Seward received a severe blow on the right eye which destroyed its sight.for a time. At Hay-on-Wye in October they were again attacked by an angry mob, where Seward was struck in the back of the head with a large stone, causing his death a couple of days later, where Seward became the first Methodist martyr.

Harris accompanied Whitefield on his second preaching tour in Wales in April, 1743. Together they preached, alternately, in the open-air at Pontypool, Abergaveny, Comiboy, Carlion, Trelix, and Newport, to thousands of people in attendance. Whitefield spoke first in English, followed by Harris preaching in Welsh.

In 1750 Harris retreated to his home at Trefeca, having burnt out and fallen out with a fellow evangelist, Daniel Rowland, and become the subject of public scandal for his close friendship with "Madam" Sidney Griffith. In 1752 he was inspired by the example of the Moravians to found a religious community there known as Teulu Trefeca (The Trefeca family) with himself as "Father".

Harris had not given up preaching and resumed his former activities in 1763, after a reconciliation with Rowland. He died ten years later and was buried close to his birthplace at Talgarth, where 20,000 people are said to have attended his funeral. There is a memorial to him at Rhydyclafdy, near Pwllheli, where he preached.

He was effectively the founder of the movement within the Anglican Church in Wales that eventually in 1811 gave birth to Presbyterian Church of Wales, also known as the Calvinistic Methodist Church.

Howell Harris papers

Harris kept a detailed diary and carefully filed the letters he sent and received during his ministry. His papers offer a first-hand account of the Welsh Methodist revival. After his death, they were left to gather dust for over a century before O. M. Edwards, in the 1880s, noted their importance and suggested they ought to be cared for. By this time, the former home of Harris at Trefeca had been turned into a college, whose deputy head, Edwin Williams, took on the task of putting the papers in order. They were kept there until 1910, when the Presbyterian Church of Wales, as their ostensible owner, decided to set up a committee to take care of them and study them.

By 1913 the scale of the work needing to be done on the papers became apparent. Many of the papers were in Latin, and it was estimated that it would take much of a decade and a vast sum of money to ready them for publication. In 1913, it was decided it would be a better use of resources to set up a Historical Society of the Presbyterian Church of Wales, which would publish a regular journal that would include some of Harris's papers.

Probably around 1932, the papers were moved from Trefeca to the denomination's theological college in Aberystwyth. These papers, along with others from Coleg y Bala (an old college of the denomination in Bala, North Wales, not to be confused with Bala-Bangor Theological Seminary), were taken in 1934 to be stored safely at the National Library of Wales. There the papers remain in the vaults to this day. Revd Dr Geraint Tudur (son of R. Tudur Jones), formerly Lecturer in Church History at University of Wales, Bangor, and subsequently General Secretary of the Union of Welsh Independents, published a biography: Howell Harris: From Conversion to Separation, 1735–1750 (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000).

See also

• Divergence between Anglicanism and Methodism

Bibliography

• Barr, Josiah Henry (1916). Early Methodists under persecution. New York: Methodist book concern.
• Billingsley, Amos Stevens (1878). The life of the great preacher, Reverend George Whitefield, "The prince of pulpit orators". Philadelphia: P. W. Ziegler & Co.
• Evans, Richard W. (June 1961). "The Relations of George Whitefield and Howell Harris, Fathers of Calvinistic Methodism". Church History. 30 (2): 179–190. doi:10.2307/3161971. JSTOR 3161971.
• Thomas, Graham C. G. (1990). "George Whitefield and friends : the correspondence of some early Methodists". National Library of Wales Journal. 26 (3): 263. Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2026.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
• Hughes, Hugh Joshua (1892). Life of Howell Harris: The Welsh Reformer. William Jones. ISBN 9781375570541. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Nuttall, Geoffrey (1965). Howell Harris 1714–1773: The Last Enthusiast. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
• Henry, Stuart C. (1957). George Whitefield: wayfaring witness. New York: Abingdon Press.
• Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn (1987). "Howell Harris and Revival," in The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust.
• Davies, Gwyn (2002), A light in the land : Christianity in Wales, 200–2000, Bridgend: Bryntirion Press. ISBN 1-85049-181-X
• Tudur, Geraint (2001), "Papurau Howell Harris" in Cof Cenedl XVI, Gwasg Gomer.
• Roberts, Reverend Gomer Morgan (1959). "HARRIS, HOWELL (1714-1773), religious reformer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 2 August 2026.
• Tyerman, Luke (1876). The life of George Whitefield. Vol. I. London: Hodder and Stoughton, Publishers.

Further reading

• Stevens, Abel (1859). The history of the religious movement of the eighteenth century called Methodism. Vol. I. New York: Carlton & Porter.
• —— (1859). The history of the religious movement of the eighteenth century called Methodism. Vol. II. New York: Carlton & Porter.
• —— (1859). The history of the religious movement of the eighteenth century called Methodism. Vol. III. New York: Carlton & Porter.
• Tyerman, Luke (1876). The life of George Whitefield. Vol. I. London: Hodder and Stoughton, Publishers.
• —— (1880). The life and times of the Rev. John Wesley : founder of the Methodists. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

External links

• Harris, Howel(l) 1714–1773 at Welsh Biography Online, National Library of Wales
• Lloyd-Jones, Martyn, Howell Harris and revival. Reproduction of article first published in 1973.
• Powys Digital History Project, Howell Harris 1714–1773
• Howell Harris at 100 Welsh Heroes