Trefeca
Trefeca (also Trefecca, Trevecca, and Trevecka), located between
Teulu Trefeca
In 1752, Harris, who was born in Trefeca[1] and was one of the foremost leaders of the Welsh Methodist revival, established a Christian community there known as Teulu Trefeca ('the Trefeca Family'), modelled on the Moravian Herrnhutt community of Count von Zinzendorf.
John Wesley preached for Harris's 'family' when visiting Trevecca in August 1769 for the first anniversary of Trevecca College.
The additions to Harris's family house were in an unusual
Trevecca College (1768–1792)
In 1768,
The use of the term 'college' set Trevecca apart from the
The college transferred to Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, in 1792.[3] The building used is now a farmhouse (College Farm).
Cheshunt College was later affiliated with the Congregational Union of England and Wales. It moved again in 1906 to Cambridge[2] and merged with Westminster College, Cambridge in 1967.[4]
Notable students
- Samuel Eyles Pierce, English preacher, theologian, and Calvinist divine
- John Eyre (evangelical minister), co-founder of the London Missionary Society
Trevecca College (1842–1906)
Thomas Charles, a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist had tried to arrange for taking over the Trevecca College buildings when the trustees of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion removed their seminary to Cheshunt in 1792; but the Bala revival broke out just at the time, and, when things grew quieter, other matters pressed for attention. A college had been mooted in 1816, but the intended tutor died suddenly, and the matter was for the time dropped.
Candidates for the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Connexional ministry were compelled to shift for themselves until 1837, when
In 1872, a Harris Memorial Chapel was added to Trefeca, designed by R. G. Thomas of Menai Bridge. The building is now Coleg Trefeca, a lay training centre for the Presbyterian Church of Wales.[5]
In 1905 David Davies of Llandinam, one of the leading laymen in the Connexion, offered a large building at Aberystwyth as a gift to the denomination for the purpose of uniting North and South in one theological college; but in the event of either association declining the proposal, the other was permitted to take possession, giving the association that should decline the option of joining at a later time. The Association of the South accepted, and that of the North declined, the offer; Trevecca College was turned into a preparatory school on the lines of a similar institution set up at Bala in 1891.[6] In 1906 this became the United Theological College in Aberystwyth under its Principal Owen Prys.[7][8]
Howell Harris Museum
The Howell Harris Museum is located at Coleg Trefeca. Open by appointment, the exhibits focus on the life of Howell Harris and the community of Teulu Trefeca that he founded.[9]
See also
- Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee, named after Trevecca College.
References
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12392. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b "The city of Cambridge: Theological colleges | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
- ^ Dissenting Academies Online: The Countess of Huntingdon's College, Trevecka (1768-1791), accessed 3 April 2016
- ^ "History - Westminster College History Westminster College".
- ^ "Coleg Trefeca". The Presbyterian Church of Wales. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
- ^ public domain: Jenkins, D. E. (1911). "Calvinistic Methodists". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 77–78. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ D. Ben Rees (ed), Vehicles of Grace and Hope: Welsh Missionaries in India, 1800-1970, William Carey Library (2002) - Google Books pg 175
- ^ John Venn (ed), Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge from the Earliest Times to 1900: Volume 2 From 1752 to 1900, Cambridge University Press (2011) - Google Books pg 213
- ^ Methodist Heritage: Howell Harris Museum, accessed 3 July 2016