Thomas Bevan (c.1796 – 31 January 1819) was, with fellow Welshman David Jones, the first Christian missionaries to

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

, sent by the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

.Gerald H. Anderson, ''Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions'', Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999. p.336 ,

Life and work

Bevan was born in the neighbourhood of Neuaddlwyd,

Cardiganshire Ceredigion (), historically Cardiganshire (, ), is a county in the west of Wales. It borders Gwynedd across the Dyfi estuary to the north, Powys to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. Ab ...

, about 1796. He came from a religious home, and at the age of 8, he was already a reader of the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

. He experienced conversion near Nantgwynfynydd farm and on 19 November 1810, became a church member at Neuaddlwyd. There, the minister Thomas Phillips (1772–1842) encouraged him to begin preaching. He then went to Phillips's school at Pen-y-banc, and later to colleges at Newtown and, with Jones, at

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hampshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 70,131 and the district had a pop ...

. It was decided that he should go to Madagascar. He was ordained at Neuaddlwyd, 20–1 August 1817, and married Mary Jones (née Jacob) of Pen-yr-allt Wen in the same district. Bevan and Jones, with their families, sailed for Madagascar on 9 February, arriving in

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

on 3 July 1818. Five weeks later, they embarked again, and landed at

Tamatave Toamasina (), meaning "like salt" or "salty", unofficially and in French Tamatave or in the past as Port aux prunes, is the capital of the Atsinanana region on the east coast of Madagascar on the Indian Ocean. The city is the chief seaport of the ...

, Madagascar, on 18 August 1818. Here they started a school with ten children. Bevan returned to Mauritius to fetch his family, returning on 6 January 1819. Their own child died on 20 January, Bevan himself died on 31 January, and his wife died on 3 February 1819. They are buried in Tamatave cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bevan, Thomas 1796 births 1819 deaths Welsh Protestant missionaries Protestant missionaries in Madagascar British expatriates in Madagascar