Francis, Benjamin, an English Baptist minister, born in Wales in 1734. He united with the Baptist Church at fifteen years of age, and began preaching when only nineteen. He was educated at the Bristol Baptist College. After a brief ministry at Sodbury, he accepted a call to the Baptist Church at Shortwood in 1757, and remained there until his death, December 14, 1799. An earnest and popular preacher and indefatigable worker, he received flattering calls from London and elsewhere, but refused them all in deep devotion to his flock at Shortwood, He published several small volumes of poetry, among them two volumes of Welsh hymns, 1774 and 1786. Five of his hymns were published in Rippon's Selection, 1787. Joseph Grigg's well-known hymn beginning, "Jesus, and shall it ever be," owes its present popular form to Francis.