WILLIAMS
,
ZACHARIAH
(
1673
-
1755
),
medical practitioner, and inventor
,
father of
Anna
Williams
(q.v.)
; was b. at
Rosemarket, Pembs.
, and practised for a time in
South Wales
. He was admitted a ‘poor brother pensioner’ of the
Charterhouse
,
London
, in
1729
. His interests are indicated by the titles of his books:
The Mariners Compass Compleated
,
1740
and
1745
;
A True Narrative of certain Circumstances relating to Zachariah Williams in the Charterhouse
,
1749
; and
Account of an Attempt to ascertain the Longitude at Sea by an exact Theory of the Variation of the Magnetical Needle
,
1755
. He had no luck with his discoveries, and accused
Samuel
Molyneux
of stealing his plans. From
Dec. 1745
he was bedridden, and he d. a disappointed man,
12 July 1755
.
Samuel
Johnson
took a great interest in him — see
Powell
's index to the
Birkbeck
Hill
ed. of
Boswell
.
Bibliography:
-
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
;
-
Eminent Welshmen
, 1908
.
Author:
Professor Gwyn Jones, M.A., (1907-99), Aberystwyth / Cardiff
