Samuel Ogden was baptised on 30 August 1769 at St Mary's Church, Oldham, the son of Joseph and Betty Ogden; Joseph was a weaver. Samuel married Elizabeth Connell (1762-1852) at St Mary's on 20 July 1789, and they had ten children. By 1797, when he was admitted to the St John Masonic Lodge, Samuel was working as a hatter in Manchester. By 1802 Samuel had settled in Caernarfon.

In June 1802 the bi-lingual preachers Edward Jones (1778-1837) (Bathafarn) and the former Calvinistic Methodist and now Welsh Wesleyan itinerant John Bryan (1776-1856) visited Caernarfon where they were warmly welcomed both by Robert Jones who had come from the Vale of Clwyd to live in Caernarfon and Samuel Ogden (1769-1839). The two visiting ‘Welsh Lions’ preached in the evening in Penyrallt Street.

Samuel led an English-language fellowship each Sunday in Bangor and preached in Caernarfon. Bryan recorded that the English Wesleyan society in Caernarfon began in the Ogdens' home. In 1803 Caernarfon was made the head of the second Welsh Circuit which encompassed the counties of Caernarfon, Anglesey and Merioneth with John Hughes as the first Superintendent. At the first Quarterly Meeting on 11 April 1804 Samuel Ogden of Caernarfon and Thomas Templeman (1744-1833) of Anglesey (game keeper and formerly of Yorkshire) were appointed Circuit Stewards. Samuel Ogden remained the leader of English language Methodists until in 1831 when the Conference appointed the probationer James Egan Moulton (1806-1866) as the first English minister. Samuel and Elizabeth Ogden and many of their family continued to be faithful members of the English Wesleyan chapels in Caernarfonshire. Samuel Ogden died in Caernarfon on 29 July 1839, aged 70.

Entry written by: DHR
Category: Person
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