Laura Emily Anne Blagdon

Laura Emily Ann Thomas was born Laura Blagdon, daughter of JohnBlagdon, Esq., of Boddington Manor, Gloucestershire (pictured).Possessed of a glowing complexion as a child she earned the nickname'Rosy,' which remained with her all her life. Brought up amid thesumptuous surroundings of Boddington Manor, she lived the life of asquire's daughter, with parties and good deeds mingling.

Even so, there was something special about her. As a child she hadbeen deeply affected by the sermon preached by Francis Close, theVicar of St. Mary's, Cheltenham, brought to weep bitterly. Her fatherremoved her from the church. He was further disturbed when she took itupon herself to visit a young gamekeeper on the estate as he laydying, seeking to pluck his soul from the flames of hell. While shewas cheered when he professed faith shortly before death, the localclergyman felt that such conduct was unbecoming of a young lady ofquality, and informed her father, urging him to keep her from such'enthusiasm.'

Perhaps another cause of this was that Miss Blagdon was seeking toconvert a cottage on the estate into an evangelical preaching station.At first the preachers were all ministers of the Church of England,but soon a dearth of such men forced them to open the doors of thepreaching house to Dissenters, chiefly Baptists and Methodists(Wesleyan). This did not amuse Mr. Blagdon, who had only tolerated theopening of the meeting house because it was a pet project of hisfavourite daughter.

Slowly Miss. Laura Blagdon became totally estranged from her formerfriends, as she sought to pursue God's glory to the exclusion of all.He felt her lifestyle to be a deliberate insult to his own, which wasvery much that of the county squire. The relationship was furtherundermined by the fact that Miss Blagdon utterly ignored classdistinctions, doing some thing that her biographer speaks of as havingpossessed greater zeal than discretion.

At last her father could bear it no longer. He forbade her from livingunder his roof any longer, ordering her from his house at thesuggestion of certain of his companions. It must have hurt her deeply,but Laura went out from the mansion. With her went her mother andyounger sister, heartened by the words of their Lord.

There is no man that hath left house, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children,
or lands for my sake, and the Gospel's, but he shall
receive and hundredfold now in this time brethren,
and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands,
with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
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Despite her father's actions, Miss Laura Blagdon felt she had towrite, telling him of her decision to be baptised. No reply to thisletter survives:

"[...]The rite was to have been in the river, only the crippled womanbegged for the baptistry, otherwise the pastor greatly prefers theformer, and it is more agreeable to Scripture. Oh! you cannotconceive, or I tell, the joy with which I looked forward to theblessed occasion, and and for Jess [her sister], at first a littlenervous, her courage rose to a great height and heavenly pleasure. Theservices are all Welsh, but ... in the future there will always besome English."

However, Laura was already considering a step which would meanseparation from that church. Shortly before the move to Carmarthen,someone had asked her whether she had been baptised. Miss Blagdon (notunnaturally) replied: "Yes, of course I have been baptised!" at whichpoint the man had replied: "You may have been sprinkled in yourinfancy, of which you know nothing, but that is not ChristianBaptism." Laura, together with her sister and mother, hand begun 'tosearch the scriptures, to find out whether these things were so.'
Miss. Laura Blagdon, her mother and sister, cast out of their home,spent a brief period at Cheltenham, where they had friends. But thememories of happier times spent there made the stay brief. A friendmentioned Carmarthen as a suitable place for them. They set off to theWest, meaning to stop a while at Coleford. On their way there theypaused at Lydney. There, in the churchyard, they prayed to God forguidance.

As a result, they decided to go at once to Carmarthen, then a quietand elegant county town, dominated by its ancient Castle, coming aliveonly on market day. Here in what was once the Royal capital of Wales,Welsh and English speaking culture existed side by side, while thetown abounded with churches and chapels of every denomination. TheBlagdon's attached themselves to Zion Calvinistic Methodist Chapel(pictured).

However, Laura was already considering a step which would meanseparation from that church. Shortly before the move to Carmarthen,someone had asked her whether she had been baptised. Miss Blagdon (notunnaturally) replied: "Yes, of course I have been baptised!" at whichpoint the man had replied: "You may have been sprinkled in yourinfancy, of which you know nothing, but that is not ChristianBaptism." Laura, together with her sister and mother, hand begun 'tosearch the scriptures, to find out whether these things were so.'

The drift towards the Baptists continued when Mrs. Blagdon met herformer music teacher, Mr. John Rollings, a deacon at Priory StreetBaptist Church in the town. Still used to the Anglican orders, theBlagdons took him to be the pastor of the church and thus, when theybecame convinced that believer's baptism was the only scripturalbaptism, they asked him to baptise them. He explained that a deaconamong the nonconformists was not the same as a deacon among theAnglicans and introduced the family to his pastor, Mr. NathanielThomas.

After interviewing the Blagdons, Pastor Thomas recommended them to thechurch as fit candidates for baptism, and on 22 January 1852, theywere baptised at Priory Street. They had intended to remain at Zion,but hearing a personal attack on them in the course of a sermonagainst believers' baptism, they left that chapel and joined thechurch at Priory Street.
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Her own baptism she described in ecstatic language:
"Sight almost failed me, and I saw no man save Jesus only. Friendlyarms I felt, but saw not; strong courage came down from on high; and,as I stepped down into the waters, they felt warm and delicious. Thekind pastor whispered, 'Don't be anxious now - be very calm;' and thenstayed a few moments to still the gasping, and then the same sweetwords [of administration], though I heard them not. Oh, I felt that Iwas nigh God! - and my flesh trembled, though my spirit deeply, yetawfully rejoiced! I heard music - my eyes closed; and then, so gently,so slowly, I sank into my Saviour's grave, and I felt the watersclosing and gurgling over my face - how I rose I know not. Vitalwarmth never forsook any of us, and we only grieived this blessedheavenly season was over. Blessed! - aye, more blessed, more joyful,more glorous, more heavenly, than any day which has dawned on any ofus. My dear father, any you soon have the like, and then I have wishedyou all I can on earth. Oh, do search the New Testament, and not man'straditions - venture at the bidding of Him, who really died for you,and rose again for you, and prove your love to Him as powerfully asHis is so powerfully revealed to you. Please let m darling sistersread this, which has cost me an immense effort to write; it has becomea task too great to be silent."

Her baptism was not the only great event in her life at this time.Soon afterwards Mr. Thomas began to pay court to her, and on 13September, 1852, Miss Laura Blagdon married Pastor Nathaniel Thomas.It was a union that was to last for the rest of her life.
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As Mrs. Thomas, Laura Blagdon faced a life unlike anything she couldhave expected growing up. She learned Welsh, for the chapel whosepastor she had married was a Welsh-language church. As pastor's wife,she threw herself into theduties of a pastor's wife, her new roleincluded home visiting and teaching at the Sunday School. She learnedWelsh enough to be able to read the Bible aloud in Welsh.

Noticing a lack of Bibles in the possession of the poor, she arranged,in 1854, a survey of the town of Carmarthen to work out how manyBibles there were in the town, while collecting money from the poor asa contribution towards Bibles for the poor.

As Pastor's wife, she was often solicited for aid by the poor membersof the congregation. One of these was a young man who was leaving thetown to seek his fortune, but was too poor to afford a suit of clothesto wear at chapel. After consulting with her husband, she gave thepoor youth his best suit, which went down very well at the new chapel.

She took a large class of girls in the Sunday school, which she taughtwith great enthus iasm, going out into the countryside to seekbotanical speciments in order to have new illustrations for herclasses. The love for the Word of God which had sent her on herwanderings did not die. She was unable to complete her labours amongthe poor of Carmarthen, for in 1856 her husband was invited to becomepastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church, Cardiff.
Labels: Mrs. Laura Thomas