Charles, Thomas, 1755–1814, Welsh nonconformist clergyman. He was brought up under Methodist influence, attended Oxford (1775–78), and was ordained in the Church of England. He held curacies in Somersetshire but resigned them and returned to Bala, Wales, where in 1784 he joined the Calvinistic Methodist Church. Gifted in working with children, he began (1785) to establish Welsh language schools. He secured and distributed thousands of Welsh Bibles and helped to found the British and Foreign Bible Society (see Bible societies). At Bala in 1803, Charles established a printing press for Welsh textbooks.
See W. Hughes, ed., Life and Letters of the Rev. Thomas Charles (1881).
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