James Beaumont was from Radnorshire (one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolition in 1974, later becoming a district of Powys). He was a member of the Independent congregation at Gore (near Old Radnor) but became attracted by Howel Harris and began preaching. In 1741 he was preaching at Dilwyn (Herefordshire) and in 1741-4 he extended his activities to Leominster. On 5 Jan 1743 he was officially appointed as a ‘Public Exhorter’ at the first Calvinistic Methodist Conference led by George Whitefield and a little later he was superintendent of the Radnorshire Methodist Societies, under Harris; a correspondent writing to Harris in 1744 describes the brutal treatment meted out to Beaumont by the mob—it was rumoured that he had been fatally stoned.
James Beaumont was also attracted to Moravianism. In 1750 he went down to Pembrokeshire ‘for his health’ according to a Moravian record, and preached there. He died at Haverfordwest on 22 Jun 1750 and was buried in Prendergast Churchyard on the 24th.
The following year, J. Lewis, a fellow ‘Public Exhorter’ published James Beaumont’s Hymns and Spiritual Songs Composed from Several Scriptures for the Use of Religious Societies (J. Lewis, Paternoster Row, London, 1751) from which the hymn passed into various hymn books.
NRF
