WILLIAMS
,
JOHN
(
1627
-
1673
), early
Nonconformist preacher, and physician
;
b. at
Tyn-y-coed
(=‘
Castellmarch Uchaf
’) in
Llŷn
, of a county family, his parents being
William
and
Mary
Jones
. He entered
Jesus College
,
Oxford
,
7 March 1647
, ‘aged 20,’ in order to study medicine. Several of the gentry round about his home had espoused the
Puritan
cause as he himself had done, and it is said that after he had started
preaching
he was for a time
chaplain
to
colonel
John
Jones
of
Maesygarnedd
(
1597?
-
1660
) (q.v.)
. But our knowledge of his career
between 1647 and 1662
is very sketchy; we cannot rely on the traditions collected about him by
Robert
Jones
of
Rhos-lan
, any more than we can on later, more circumstantial, stories, e.g. there is no proof that he was the ‘
John
Williams
’ who was given the living of
Llanbeblig
in
1651
and who held it until
1660
; nor is there anything in
Mostyn MS. 237
(
N.L.W.
) to connect him with the ‘
John
Williams
,’ whose name appears among those of the militant
Nonconformists
of
Llŷn
whose houses were searched for arms in
1661
. But he was certainly in
London
in
1662
, and was said to be
chaplain
to a
Puritan
nobleman in
Kent
. In
1663
, while he was still in
England
, the
Caernarvonshire
justices issued a warrant for his arrest and that of
Richard
Edwards
of
Nanhoron
(q.v.)
on the strength of an alleged treasonable letter sent by him to
Edwards
. When news of this reached him,
Williams
surrendered to the authorities in
London
and succeeded in getting an acquittal; both men were released after spending ten weeks in gaol.
Williams
returned to his native county to
practise medicine
. He had married
Dorothy
Whalley
of
Cheshire
; their only child,
Mary
, was b. at
Bryn Gro
,
Clynnog
, in
1666
, but she was christened at
Llangian
, and it is quite certain that he generally lived at
Tyn-y-coed
— the house which, on
5 Sept. 1672
, was registered as a meeting-house under the
Indulgence
of that year. At the end of
Aug. 1672
Henry
Maurice
(q.v.)
visited
Llŷn
and called at
Tyn-y-coed
to look up his ‘kinsman’ to use his own expression — although the connection between them has not yet been traced.
Maurice
rebuked
John
Williams
for his long inactivity, in that he had not preached for a great time, and although he saw ‘grace abounding’ in
Williams
he was not satisfied with his excuses. He paid him a second visit (
14 Sept.
) and again reproached him with ‘
neglecting the work of the Lord in that land
’ — but, on that occasion,
John
Williams
summoned up sufficient courage to tell him some pretty plain truths.
John
Williams
d.
28 March 1673
, ‘in the 47th year of his age,’ and was buried at
Llangian
; there is a photograph of the
Latin
inscription and coat of arms on his tombstone in
Y Cofiadur
,
1928
— he is called
minister gratia Dei
and
patriae sanitas
, in allusion to his double calling.
Bibliography:
-
J. E. Griffith
,
Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire
Families
, 1914
, 194;
-
Drych yr
AmseroeddY Llenor
(Rhoslan) , 1820; another ed. [1841]; 's ed. in , xv–xvi, 1898.
There is now a new edition ed.
(University of Wales Press, 1958)
, 9-12 (=22-4 in the O.M.E. ed.);
-
T. Rees
,
History of Protestant Nonconformity in
Wales
, 129-31, 215, 217;
-
Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru
, iii, 155, 162-5;
-
Thomas Richards
's volumes on early Nonconformity in
Wales (indexes), and his article on Henry Maurice in
Y Cofiadur
,
1928
;
-
W. Gilbert Williams
in
Y Cofiadur
,
1928
.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
