Dewi Elfed Jones vs.
Thomas Price
Just as the only sources for an
account of Dewi Elfed’s baptism an the Mormon triumph at Gwawr Chapel in April
1851 were to be found in Mormon titles, so the only sources regarding the
dramatic events of November whereby the Baptist regained their loss are the
recollections of Thomas Price himself and some additions to them by Benjamin
Evans.
On the 4th November, a
crowd of about 2,000 set out behind Thomas Price to claim physical repossession
of Gwawr chapel. The sheriff of the county
of Glamorgan was also at
hand.
Despite the verdict of the court,
Dewi Elfed and an unnamed supporter had entered the building and locked
themselves in before the rejoicing Baptists arrived at the scene. It is not
clear what they hoped to achieve by this, and in the long run they probably
only made Price’s triumph seem the greater, Nevertheless, to secure their
positions, Dewi and his friend bolted the door and fastened down all windows so
that access was made impossible without breaking an entrance. It may be that
this what Dewi wanted to happen in the hope that Price would appear in a bad
light because of it.
This was the situation when the
crowd of marchers reached the site. The sheriff gave Price to understand that
he had no authority to break an entry into the place of worship. For a moment
no one knew what to do next. Benjamin Evans related that the crowd then began
to get restive and voices were raised at those inside the chapel. At this,
Price strode forward: “wild in appearance, walking quickly and looking
purposefully, with his every gesture declaring that Gwawr was shortly to be a
chapel for the Baptists and not the Saints.”
In the midst of the tumult he tried
the bolted door to no effect. He then shouted “in an authoritative manner” to
one of his deacons, Philip John, to David Grier, a mason who had with him the
tools of his trade. Price shouted “wildly” at Grier and told him to prize open
one of the windows so that he, Price, could get in “at the devils.” Grier
complied. Price was helped in through the window by Philip John and by Grier,
both of whom followed him into the building.
By the time these two caught up
with Price it is said the latter was off chasing Dewi Elfed and his companion
about the chapel: up into the pulpit and down again; and after coursing about
two or three times Price is said to have come to grips with the fugitives in
the chapel lobby. It was certainly a very different occasion to the only other
known instance of Dewi Elfed and Thomas Price sharing a pulpit – at the
induction of the minister of the English-language Baptist cause in that
neighborhood the previous year.
Once caught in the lobby, Price
(single-handed be it noted) is said to have grasped the two “with the grip of a
giant.” He told John and Grier to open the main door. This was done with
difficulty by both of them acting jointly. At this, Benjamin Evans told how
Price “literally booted both rascals one after the other out of the chapel
until they descended distantly amidst the congratulations of the large crowd.”
Price had clearly reserved his best line till then, for he proclaimed the
incident “a pretty good example of the casting out of devils in the 19th
century.” Having been so routed, it is said the two Saints “ran for their
lives.” Later that day the chapel was placed securely in trust for the Baptists
once more. Price’s victory was total, and his sun shone brightly indeed.
[Taken from Les Davies’s “From a Seion of Lands to the Land of Zion:
the life of David Bevan Jones, protagonist of the early Mormon mission to Wales,”
1987 manuscript, pp. 43-44. This manuscript was later abridged and published in
Mormons in Early Victorian Britain,
Edited by Richard L. Jensen and Malcolm R. Thorp, University of Utah Press,
1989: pp. 118-141.]
