Daniel Rowland – Teifi Faith Trail

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Daniel Rowland and the Llangeitho ‘Jumpers’

Rowland’s charismatic preaching drew crowds of thousands to Llangeitho

Quakers and Shakers are well known nicknames given to two distinct low-church denominations.

Llangeitho was the home to a third group, the Jumpers, a sobriquet applied to the followers of Methodist evangelist Daniel Rowland and the religious revival of 1762–4. Men and women, gathered in large numbers to hear Rowlands preach, would ‘jump for joy’ as part of their worship and this practice continued well into the nineteenth century.

Daniel Rowland was an early Methodist evangelist, whose active ministry (1735–90) was both long and controversial. He was appointed an Anglican curate at Llangeitho, which he established as a centre of Calvinistic Methodism, often attracting congregations of over a thousand people.

His accomplished preaching formed a significant element of the eighteenth-century Methodist religious revival together with associates John Wesley and George Whitefield in England, and Howell Harris and William Williams in Wales.

His actions resulted in a rift with the church authorities, but by the end of his life they were largely reconciled and he was buried in the church graveyard. However, the church was later enlarged, incorporating his grave within the church, where it can now be seen. Rowland founded his own ‘New Church’ in Llangeitho, and a white marble statue by Edward Griffith was erected in 1883 in the forecourt of his chapel.

Llangeitho Church

Daneil Rowland in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography

St Mary’s Church, Strata Florida, Ceredigion, Wales, SY25 6ES United Kingdom

Daniel Rowland and the Llangeitho ‘Jumpers’

Rowland’s charismatic preaching drew crowds of thousands to Llangeitho

Other churches nearby

Llanbadarn Odwyn

Betws Leucu

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