THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
nL ——————————————
Critical Dictionary of English Literature, iii. 2739, Philadelphia, 1891; Julian, Hymnology, pp. 1281-82.
WILLIAMS, HUGH: Welsh Presbyterian; b. at Menai Bridge (6 m. n. of Carnarvon), Carnarvonshire, Sept. 17, 1843. He was educated at Calvinistic Methodist College, Bala, Wales, and the University of London (B.A., 1870; M.A., 1871), and, after being master of the grammar-school at Menai Bridge (1871-73), was ordained to the ministry in 1873; was appointed professor of Greek at Bala College (1874-91), and when the college was made a theological institution (1891) his appointment was changed to his present chair of church history. In theology he ‘‘ welcomes the progress and expansion due to all modern research’ and “ retains in the main a position of faithful adherence ”’ to the standards of his church. He has prepared a Welsh “ Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians ”’ (Carnarvon, 1892) and ‘‘ Handbook on the Sacraments of the Church” (Bala, 1894) and edited Gildas’s De excidio Britannie (London, 1901).
WILLIAMS, ISAAC: Church of England, poet and harmonist; b. at Cwmcynfeyln, near Aberystwith (40 m. n.n.e. of Carmarthen), Wales, Dec. 12, 1802; d. at Stinchcombe (12 m. s.w. of Gloucester) May 1, 1865. He studied with Polehampton of Eton and King’s College, and at Harrow, and then at Trinity College, Oxford (B.A., 1826; M.A., 1831; fellow, 1831; and B.D., 1839); was ordained deacon, 1829, and became curate of Windrush-cum- Sherborne; was ordained priest, 1832, and became tutor at Trinity College, Oxford; philosophy lecturer, 1832, and dean of the college, 1833; was rhetoric lecturer, 1834-40; and _ vice-president, 1840-42. Soon after his settlement at Trinity College he became curate to John H. Newman at St. Mary’s, Oxford, and later had charge of the church at Littlemore. He was curate to Thomas Keble at Bisley, 1842-48; and at Stinchcombe, near Dursley, 1848-65. He was associated with Newman and Keble in Lyra Apostolica and Tracts for the Times, writing Tracts 80, 86, and 87. His literary industry was great, and his works embrace commentaries on the Psalms, the Gospels, and the Apocalypse; The Cathedral, or the Catholic and the Apostolic Church of England. In Verse (Oxford, 1888); A Harmony of the Four Evangelists (London, 1850); A Short Memoir of R. A. Suckling, with Correspondence and Sermons (1852); and many sermons, individual and in series. He was also a writer of hymns, but none of them had great currency.
Brsuiocrapuy: His Autobiography, ed. Sir G. Provost, appeared London, 1892. Consult also: S. W. Duffield, Hnglish Hymns, pp. 329-330, New York, 1886; R. W. Church, The Oxford Movement, pp. 57-69, London, 1891; W. R.
Ww. Stephens, Life of Edward Freeman, i. 43-50, ib. 1895; DNB, lIxi. 408-411; Julian, Hymnology, pp. 1282-1284.
WILLIAMS, JOHN: Name of two important workers in the religious field.
1. “The apostle of Polynesia,” missionary; b. in London June 29, 1796; d. at Erromanga, New Hebrides Islands, Nov. 20, 1839. After a commercial education he was apprenticed to be an ironmonger, but -in 1816 was led to give himself to missionary labor, and was sent by the London Mis-
sionary Society to the Society Islands, 1816. First at Papetoai, then at Huahine, in 1818 he settled in the Island of Raiatea, the largest of the Leeward group. From there as a center he carried on his work of educating and developing the natives not only in religion but in industry and economic living.
In 1821 he bought a schooner and used her as a
missionary ship; with her he discovered the Island
of Rarotonga in 1823, where he later translated parts of the Bible and other books into the native language.
Williams was in England, 1838-44, where the fame of his adventures made him a center of interest. He left England with sixteen other missionaries, in a newly equipped ship and some funds for the continuance of his work, all the result of his labor and energy. On reaching the Pacific he made a tour of the Society Islands and then of the New Hebrides, a new field for him, where he was killed by natives. His work was eminently successful and extensive, and his adventures truly unique, and both displayed his practical sagacity and his initiative. He was the author of A Narrative of Misstonary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands, with Remarks upon the natural History of the Islands, Origin, Languages, Tradition, and Usages of the Inhabitants (London, 1837), one of the most important works on the subject.
2. Protestant Episcopal, bishop of Connecticut; b. at Deerfield, Mass., Aug. 30, 1817; d. at Middletown, Conn., Feb. 7, 1899. He studied in Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., 1831-33, and was graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., 1835; was tutor in the college, 1837-40; ordained, 1838; assistant in Christ Church, Middletown, Conn., 1841-42; rector of St. George’s, Schenectady, N. Y., 1842-48; president of Trinity College and professor of history and literature, 1848-53; assistant bishop of Connecticut, 1851-65; and bishop from 1865. From 1854 he was dean, and principal instructor in doctrinal theology, history of the Reformation, and in the prayer-book, at Middletown. He also continued to lecture in history at Trinity College, of which he became vice-chancellor, 1851, and chancellor, 1865. He was appointed first lecturer at the General Theological Seminary, New York, 1881; and the same year delivered the Bedell lectures at the seminary and college in Gambier, O. He was a student of ecclesiastical history, an eloquent speaker, and later became presiding bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church. His works embrace Ancient Hymns of Holy Church (Hartford, 1845); Thoughts on the Gospel Miracles (New York, 1848); Paddock lectures on The English Reformation (1881); Bedell lectures on The World’s Witness to Jesus Christ (1882); and he edited an American edition of Bishop Harold Browne’s Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles (1870).
BrstiocRaPrHy: On 1, besides Williams’ Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea, new ed., Philadelphia, 1889, consult: the biographies by J. Campbell, The Martyr of Erromanga, London, 1843; E. Prout, ib., 4th ed., 1847; W. F. Besser, Berlin, 1847; also A. Buzacott, Mission Life in the Islands of the Pacific, London, 1866; R. Lovett, Story of the London Missionary Society, vol. i., ib. 1899; DNB, \xi. 423-425.
On 2 consult: W. S. Perry, The Episcopate in America, p. 117, New York, 1895.