Introduction

Biography

Benjamin was the son of En­och and Ma­ry Fran­cis. His mo­ther died when he was five years old, and his fa­ther six months lat­er.

He was bap­tized at age 15, and be­gan preach­ing at Chip­ping Sod­bu­ry at age 19. It was there in 1758 that he was vis­it­ed by dea­cons from Short­wood, who were miss­ing a preach­er at the time. They walked with him back to Nails­worth and were so im­pressed with his preach­ing that they per­suad­ed him to stay.

In 1737, he moved to Hor­sley (lat­er known as Short­wood), Glou­ces­ter­shire. He con­duct­ed a suc­cess­ful min­is­try there un­til his death in 1799.

He al­so tra­vel­ed wide­ly and com­plet­ed a mis­sion in Corn­wall in 1775, as well as in Ire­land in 1791, where he preached 30 times in Dub­lin.

Works

Francis con­trib­ut­ed sev­er­al hymns to Rip­pon’s Se­lec­tions, and wrote a num­ber of oth­ers in Welsh. He pub­lished:

• Alleluia, neu Hym­nau perthynol i Addoliad Cyhoe­ddus (Hymns Per­tain­ing to Pub­lic Wor­ship), 1774 & 1786
• Conflagration, a Po­em in Four Parts, 1779
• Elegies on the Deaths of the Revs. George White­field, Ca­leb Ev­ans, Robt. Day, and Jo­shua Tho­mas
• The As­so­cia­tion, a Po­em, 1790
• A Po­et­i­cal Ad­dress to the Stock­bridge In­di­ans
• Two sa­tir­i­cal piec­es on the Bap­tis­mal con­tro­ver­sy, The Sa­lo­pi­an Zea­lot and The Or­a­cle