WILLIAMS, ELIEZER (1754 - 1820), cleric, author, and schoolmaster

Name: Eliezer Williams
Date of birth: 1754
Date of death: 1820
Spouse: Jane Amelia Nugent Williams (née Armstrong)
Spouse: Anne Adelaide Williams (née Grebert)
Child: St. George Armstrong Williams
Parent: Mary Williams (née Jenkins)
Parent: Peter Williams
Gender: Male
Occupation: cleric, author, and schoolmaster
Area of activity: Education; Literature and Writing; Religion
Author: Thomas Iorwerth Ellis

Born at Pibwr Lwyd near Carmarthen, and christened in Llandyfaelog church, Carmarthenshire, 4 October 1754, eldest son (and second child) of Peter Williams (1723 - 1796) and Mary his wife. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth's grammar school, Carmarthen, and matriculated in the University of Oxford from Jesus College, 3 April 1775. He was ordained deacon by bishop Yorke of S. Davids, 3 August 1777, and licensed to the curacy of Tre-lech; then he went as curate to Tetsworth, Oxfordshire. He took his B.A. in 1778, and was ordained priest in Christ Church, Oxford, 20 December He taught at Wallingford grammar school, Berks., and served as curate at Acton, near Wallingford; from 1780 to 1782 he served as chaplain on the Cambridge. He went as a tutor to the earl of Galloway, and was with the family for some eight years; in the meantime the lord chancellor (Thurlow) presented him to the vicarage of Cynwyl Gaeo with Llansawel, Carmarthenshire, and he was instituted 14 September 1784. He lived in London and served at Chadwell, Essex, and then returned to Wales. On 14 July 1805, he was instituted to the vicarage of Lampeter, Cardiganshire, and remained there till his death on 20 January 1820. He was buried at Lampeter.

He wrote a number of works in English (see the list in D.N.B.); a collection of these was published in 1840 by his son, St. George Armstrong Williams. While he was at Lampeter, he opened a school there and prepared young men for holy orders; he was eminently successful in this work. He married (1), 1792, Anne Adelaide Grebert of Nancy, Lorraine, France; they had one child, who died in infancy; Anne Williams died in 1796; and (2), at the end of 1796, Jane Amelia Nugent, daughter of St. George Armstrong, Armaduff, Drumsna, Leitrim, Ireland; by her he had eight children. Jane Williams died 31 December 1809.

Author

Published date: 1959

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