Robert Morgan began to preach about the year 1636. He was a messenger from the Baptist church at Carmarthen to the association held at Abergavenny, in 1653. He bore testimony for the truth, through the whole of the persecutions for twenty-eight years. Many of the Baptists were imprisoned at Carmarthen, because they would not quit going to the meetinghouse, and conform to the traditions of men; but they bore testimony with such zeal, and manifested such a degree of patience in their sufferings, that even those who mocked them and pelted them with stones, returned home weeping, saying there must be such a thing as religion, and these men have it, for nothing else would enable them to behave in the manner they do. The more they are persecuted, the more they rejoice; the more we curse them, the more they bless us. God was glorified, saints encouraged, and sinners converted, by their becoming conduct towards their enemies. So hot and terrible was the persecution at that time, that the Baptists in this region sent a most humble petition to his Majesty, King Charles the second, soliciting mercy and justice, which was put into the king's hand by the member of Parliament for Carmarthen. In that humble petition they conclude by saying: "O king! we dare not walk the streets, and we are abused even in our own houses. If we pray to God with our families, we are threatened to be hung. Some of us are stoned almost to death, and others imprisoned for worshipping God according to the dictates of their consciences and the rule of his word." His majesty gave them a very polite answer, with fair promises, which were never fulfilled; for their sufferings increased more and more. Such was the lamentable state of our celebrated fathers in the Principality of Wales, in the reign of King Charles the second

      At this time, in 1660, Robert Morgan had to fly for his life. However, he did not go farther than about fifteen miles from the town. He hired a house at Pontarddules, and preached in his own hired house and elsewhere - not for the space of two years, like Paul in Rome - but until he died in 1711. After he moved from Carmarthen, he became a member of the church at Swansea, and preached there occasionally. He was an excellent man, good preacher, and a great poet. During the latter part of his life, he resided with his daughter, who was married to Arthur Melchior, who afterwards went to Pennsylvania, North America.

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[From J. Davis, History of the Welsh Baptists, 1835, reprint 1976, pp. 54-55.

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