He was apprenticed to a flax-dresser and rope-maker at Carmarthen and afterwards spent three years at Bristol. He returned to Carmarthen when he married Sarah, the daughter of Samuel Levi Phillips, a Haverfordwest banker, and set himself up as a tradesman. Long connected with the Calvinistic Methodists, he joined the congregation at Water Street Chapel and became an elder.[1] Charles began to preach at the age of forty-six, and was one of the first lay-preachers ordained ministers in South Wales in 1811.[2]
He helped to establish the "Home Mission", but was forced to retire in 1828 after suffering a stroke. He died on 2 September 1834, and was buried at Llangunnor.[2] There is a memorial to Charles, by Daniel Mainwaring, at Water Street Chapel.[3]
His best-known hymns include "O fryniau Caersalem ceir gweled" ("From the Hills of Jerusalem are Seen").[4]
E. Wyn James, ‘David Charles (1762–1834), Caerfyrddin: Diwinydd, Pregethwr, Emynydd’, Cylchgrawn Hanes (Cymdeithas Hanes y Methodistiaid Calfinaidd)/Journal of the Historical Society of the Presbyterian Church of Wales, 36 (2012), 13–56. ISSN 0141-5255.
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