Author: WILLIAMS, William
Biography:
WILLIAMS, William (1717-91: ODNB)
Williams was a great poet and hymn-writer in Welsh, but his claim to fame as an author publishing in English is modest. He was born at Cefncoed, Llanfair-ar-y-brun, Carmarthenshire, Wales, in 1717. No public record of the birth has been found, perhaps because his parents John and Dorothy (Lewis) Williams, farmers, were members of the Independent church in which his father was an elder. Little is known of his early education but he spent some time at a dissenting academy and was later able to publish in Latin as well as in Welsh and English. His original intent was to become a doctor, but a conversion experience led him to join the established church and to seek ordination. In 1740 he was ordained deacon and licensed to preach in two Brecknockshire parishes, but in 1743 he was accused of neglecting his duties and denied ordination as a priest. He had been caught up in the Methodist movement in Wales, and thereafter devoted his energies to that—still formally within the bounds of the established church. As assistant to the charismatic preacher Daniel Rowland (1711-90), he was given responsibility for supporting Methodist societies in Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire; undertook preaching tours around the country; and, starting with a small collection of hymns in 1744, he became the pre-eminent writer of verse and prose for the movement. Following the death of his father in 1742 he and the rest of the family moved to his mother’s home in Pantycelyn. (He is often identified as “William Williams Pantycelyn.”) As the only surviving son, he inherited both farms and was financially independent of the church. In 1747 or 1748 he married Mary Francis of Llansawel, daughter of a prosperous farmer; the couple had eight children, of whom seven survived their father. He died at Pantycelyn on 11 Jan. 1791 and was buried in the churchyard at Llanfair-ar-y-brun. He is estimated to have composed over a thousand hymns and to have published nearly ninety books and pamphlets between 1744 and 1791. His best-known hymn, “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,” was originally written in Welsh. (ODNB 19 June 2024; DWB 19 June 2024; findmypast.com 19 June 2024) HJ