1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rees, Thomas

REES, THOMAS (1777–1864), Welsh Nonconformist divine, was born at Gelligron, Glamorgan, and educated at the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen. He entered the Unitarian ministry in 1807 at Newington Green Chapel, London, removing to Southwark 1813 and to Stamford Street, Blackfriars, in 1823. He had the degree of LL.D. of Glasgow (1819). He had a great knowledge of the history of anti-trinitarian opinion, especially during the 16th century. His scattered papers, chiefly in the Monthly Repository (1818–22), on such subjects as “Faustus Socinus and Francis David,” “The Italian Reformation,” “Memoirs of the Socini,” are important. Financial troubles drove him to Spain in 1853, and he died in obscurity at Brighton on the 1st of August 1864.

Another Thomas Rees (1815–1885), a native of Pen Pontbren, Carmarthenshire, held pastorates at Aberdare (1840), Llanelly (1842), Cendl, Mon. (1849) and Swansea (1862), and became chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, but died just before his term of office was to begin. His History of Protestant Nonconformity in Wales (1861; 2nd ed. 1883) is a sound and judicious piece of work.