Dictionary of Welsh Biography

WILLIAMS, PETER (1723 - 1796), Methodist cleric, author, and Biblical commentator Welsh folk in their study of the Bible. His commentary on John, i, 1, aroused the suspicion that he was inclining to Sabellianism, but it was after his publication of a Welsh edition of John Canne's 'Little Bible' (1790) that the storm broke. He was accused of publishing the Sabellian heresy and at the Llandeilo C.M. Association, 1791, was excommunicated. He spent the last years of his life in bitter
WILLIAMS, RAYMOND HENRY (1921 - 1988), lecturer, writer and cultural critic (collected by John McIlroy and Sallie Westwood as Border Country: Raymond Williams in Adult Education (1993)) testify to the extent to which he drew on his work as extra-mural educator in the creation of his career-making volume Culture and Society (1958). A dissection of the meaning of 'culture' in English thought since industrialisation, the volume is widely identified as a progenitor for contemporary
WILLIAMS, RICHARD (d. 1724), Baptist minister pastor of the combined churches of Olchon, Llanigon, and Trosgoed (Maes-y-berllan) - the last named only recently founded, and he remained there until his death at an advanced age in 1724. Joshua Thomas could not recollect that he had left issue. He was a prominent member of the new Welsh Baptist Association, and, at Swansea in 1704, he was one of the first to preach at its annual meetings, but it
WILLIAMS, RICHARD (1747 - 1811), cleric and man of letters graduated. He was rector of Machynlleth, 1789-1805, and of Llanferres, 1805-11; he died suddenly 4 June 1811. Whether he graduated or not, it is clear that he had the scholar's temperament; he translated Seneca's tragedy, Medea, into English, and left manuscript translations into Latin of Gray's poems, and other writings. But he is chiefly remembered as Thomas Pennant's friend, and as the translator of
WILLIAMS, RICHARD (fl. 1790?-1862?), a writer and singer of ballads Merthyr by the sale of his ballads. And tradition has it that his 'Song on the effect of the new law, or The Workhouse' (for this see B. B. Thomas, below, 93-6) caused such an uproar among the working classes of Merthyr that the Guardians did not dare to build a workhouse in that town for nearly twenty years; he also sang during the Rebecca riots. Of his ballads, seventy-three survive in print, and
WILLIAMS, RICHARD (1802 - 1842), Calvinistic Methodist minister, and author Born at Winllan, Llanbryn-mair, 31 January 1802, son of Richard and Mary Williams, and brother of William Williams (Gwilym Cyfeiliog). He was educated first at a school kept by his uncle, the Rev. John Roberts (1767 - 1834), then at the school of William Owen (1788 - 1838), and later in schools at Birmingham, Wrexham, and Liverpool. After some time had elapsed he opened a school of his own at
WILLIAMS, ROBERT (1782 - 1818), composer of the hymn-tune 'Llanfair' also a musician of great repute. The tune which we now call ' Llanfair ' was at first called ' Bethel '; it is so called in Robert Williams's manuscript book, and is there dated 14 July 1817. It was first printed (again named ' Bethel') as harmonized by John Roberts (1807 - 1876) of Henllan, in the Peroriaeth Hyfryd (1837) of John Parry (1775 - 1846) His burial is recorded in Llanfechell parish
WILLIAMS, ROBERT (Robert ap Gwilym Ddu; 1766 - 1850), poet wrote for her is one of the most poignant in the language. Robert was friendly with the eisteddfodic poets, but after the one occasion when he failed to win the prize he never competed. He and John Richard Jones of Ramoth were staunch friends, and he assisted the latter to publish his hymn-books. His connection with Dewi Wyn, his neighbour and former pupil, is commemorated in the name of a
WILLIAMS, ROBERT (1848 - 1918), architect, author and social reformer continued to write (his Notes on the English Bond was aimed at the local masons, translated into French and Arabic). Of greatest interest in a Welsh historical context is the reason that brought Williams to Cairo in the first place - the designing of a shop for John Davies Bryan who had emigrated from Caernarfon, originally setting up a drapery stall within the Gwesty'r Continental. Joined by his brothers
WILLIAMS, ROBERT (1810 - 1881), cleric, Celtic scholar and antiquary reliable. His most important works have been noticed above, but he made other contributions to scholarship to which reference must be made. He published The History and Antiquities of the Town of Aberconway (Denbigh, 1835); he revised many of the notes to the new edition (Oswestry, 1878) of the The history of the Gwydir family by Sir John Wynne; he translated 'The Book of Taliesin' for W. F. Skene's Four
WILLIAMS, ROBERT ARTHUR (Berw; 1854 - 1926), cleric and poet Born 8 April 1854 at Caernarvon, son of John Williams, sailor. His mother died when he was but 3 years old, and he was brought up by his aunt at Pentre Berw, near Holland Arms, Anglesey. He was apprenticed in a shop at Gaerwen, and began to take an interest in poetry. Moving to Bangor to work, he came under the influence of dean H. T. Edwards, and went to S. Aidan's College, Birkenhead, to
WILLIAMS, ROBERT HERBERT (Corfanydd; 1805 - 1876), musician ), 1843. Some doubts were expressed as to who had composed this tune but John Roberts (Ieuan Gwyllt), J. Ambrose Lloyd, William Ambrose (Emrys), and William Evans (under whose conductorship it had been sung first, at Tabernacle chapel, Liverpool) testified that it was the work of Corfanydd. He wrote other hymn-tunes and published a small collection in 1848 under the title of Alawydd Trefriw. For some

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