Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lloyd, Charles (1766-1829)
LLOYD, CHARLES, LL.D. (1766–1829), dissenting minister and schoolmaster, third son of David Lloyd, presbyterian minister at Llwyn-rhyd-owen, Cardiganshire, was born there on 18 Dec. 1766. On his father's death (4 Feb. 1779, aged 54) his education for the ministry was undertaken by his uncle, John Lloyd of Coed-lanau. His uncle, however, provided only for his schooling (1779–84) under David Davis [q. v.], who had been his father's colleague. In the autumn of 1784 he entered (with an exhibition of 10l.) the presbyterian academy, then at Swansea, under Solomon Harries (1726–1785), who was succeeded in 1785 by Josiah Rees (father of Thomas Rees, LL.D. [q. v.]) and Thomas Lloyd, son of Charles Lloyd's uncle above mentioned. William Howell became theological tutor in 1786, and the other tutors established a grammar school, preparatory to the academy; Charles Lloyd was appointed afternoon teacher. Among his fellow-students was Lewis Loyd, father of Samuel Jones Loyd, first baron Overstone [q. v.] Leaving the academy (1788) in ill-health, he went to Hotwells, near Bristol, where he received much kindness from John Wright, M.D., and his brother, Thomas Wright, presbyterian minister at Lewin's Mead, Bristol, almost the only persons whom Lloyd, in his singular autobiography, exempts from censure. Through the influence of Nathaniel Philipps, presbyterian minister at Derby, Lloyd was elected minister, in August 1788, of the Oak Street congregation, Evesham, Worcestershire, with a stipend of 40l. He was at this time a ‘moderately high Arian.’ He started a Sunday-school and an evening service, and increased his congregation from forty to two hundred. He wished, however, to administer the sacraments without being ordained; the congregation objected; he consulted Joseph Priestley, then at Birmingham, who, to his surprise, urged him to be ordained. At length the congregation yielded, in consideration of the expense attending an ordination. Shortly afterwards he began to have doubts about infant baptism, and on 3 April 1790 proposed to omit this rite or resign. His resignation was at once accepted. Through Joshua Toulmin, D.D., he was put in charge of a general baptist congregation at Ditchling, Sussex, and proceeded thither after visiting London in May 1790. At Ditchling he received adult baptism, but refused to submit to the additional rite of imposition of hands, then usual among general baptists; he also again declined ordination. He cultivated extempore preaching. His salary was sixty guineas. At the beginning of 1792 he started a boarding-school, and married in the following summer. He wrote also, for a periodical, on the slave-trade and other topics. Early in 1793 he left the ministry and removed his school to Exeter, where it flourished for eight years. His first pupil was John Kenrick [q. v.], who describes the school as held in a ‘large ancient house near Palace Gate.’ He next turned farmer (1799) on the small estate of Coed-lannau-vawr, Cardiganshire, probably derived from his brother Richard, who died on 27 Sept. 1797, aged 37. His experiment of agriculture exhausted all his savings. He would have been glad to act as colleague in the congregation that had been his father's, but the pastor, his old schoolmaster, David Davis, opposed the election of a Socinian baptist. By this time, however, he had rejected the rite of baptism in any form, as an institution confined to the apostolic age. A secession from Llwyn-rhyd-owen chose him as their pastor, and built two small chapels at Capel-y-groes (with a membership of eighty) and Pant-y-defaid (with a membership of sixty). His stay in Cardiganshire did not last long. Leaving his congregations to the care of John James, he removed in 1803 to Palgrave, Suffolk, undertaking a school and the charge of a presbyterian congregation (5 April 1803 to 4 Oct. 1811). In 1809 he received the diploma of LL.D. from Glasgow.
From Palgrave Lloyd removed to London, where for many years he kept a school in Keppel Street. He died on a visit to relatives near Lampeter, Cardiganshire, on 23 May 1829, aged 62, and was buried at Llanwenog; there is a marble tablet to his memory in the church. By his first wife, Letty, who died at Palgrave on 11 Dec. 1808, he had several children. By a second marriage with Sara Maria Smith, he had a son, Francis Vaughan (b. 1811). As a teacher, Lloyd's attention to prosody gained him the nickname of ‘Quantity Doctor.’ Kenrick says he was ‘a good classical scholar, and grounded his pupils well … interesting them by his remarks on the authors. … But his temper was warm, and he corrected passionately. He was sensitive, and suspicious of affront.’
He published: 1. ‘Two Sermons on Christian Zeal,’ &c., 1808, 8vo. 2. ‘Observations on the Choice of a School,’ &c., 1812, 8vo. 3. ‘Particulars of the Life of a Dissenting Minister. Written by himself,’ &c. [1813], 12mo (anon.; this curious work, which Lloyd subsequently tried to suppress, mentions few names, though drawing many characters, often with much virulence; it bears the impress of an acute and honest, though jaundiced mind. For the key to some of the allusions the present writer is indebted to the Rev. R. Jenkin Jones). 4. ‘Travels at Home,’ &c., 1814, 12mo, 2 vols. 5. ‘The Monthly Repository Extraordinary,’ &c., 1819 (Aspland). 6. ‘The Epistles [six] of St. Paul … and … St. James; … a New Version … by Philalethes,’ 1819, 12mo; identified as Lloyd's on the authority of John Kentish [q. v.] In the ‘Monthly Repository’ (1813–14) Lloyd, as a Greek scholar, controverted some of the positions of John Jones, LL.D. (1766?–1827) [q. v.], with whom he is said to have played cards and quarrelled every evening. Jones's portrait is probably drawn in Lloyd's ‘Autobiography,’ pp. 171 sq. Other contributions by Lloyd, in criticism of Lant Carpenter, LL.D. [q. v.], are in the ‘Monthly Repository,’ 1815.
[Particulars of the Life, 1813; Monthly Repository, 1809 pp. 51, 698, 1819 pp. 569 sq., 1829 p. 443; Christian Reformer, 1831 p. 337, 1852 pp. 618 sq. (article by Robert Brook Aspland [q. v.]); manuscript Autobiog. of John Kenrick; extracts from Minute-book of Palgrave (now Diss) congregation; extracts from Lloyd's unpublished letters; tablet at Llanwenog; information from the Rev. R. Jenkin Jones.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.183
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 410 | ii | 10 f.e. | Lloyd, Charles (1766-1829): for 63 read 62 |
| 5 f.e. | for he had no issue, read with Sara Maria Smith he had issue a son, Francis Vaughan Lloyd, born at Palgrave 14 Oct. 1811. |