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[Allibone's Dict. iii. 2471; Baker's Biogr. Dram. 1812, i. 748, iii. 227; Biogr. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816; Bodleian Cat. iii. 56, iv. 708; Drake's Dict. of American Biogr.; European Mag. 1789; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits; Memoir of T. Moore, p. 290; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xii. 5, 474, 3rd ser. v. 175; Taylor's Records of my Life (1832), i. 276; Timperley's Encyclopædia, 1842, p. 793; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
WILLIAMS, JOHN (1796–1839), missionary, born at Tottenham High Cross, Middlesex, on 29 June 1796, was the son of John Williams by his wife, the daughter of James Maidmeet, a partner in the firm of Maidmeet & Neale, St. Paul's Churchyard. He was taught at a school in Lower Edmonton, kept by two persons named Gregory. His education was commercial, and on 27 March 1810 he was apprenticed for seven years to Enoch Tonkin, a furnishing ironmonger in the City Road, London. He ardently devoted himself to his trade, and showed so much ability that Tonkin usually entrusted him with work requiring delicacy and accuracy of execution.
Williams was the child of pious parents, his mother, who had come under the influence of William Romaine [q. v.], being distinguished for sanctity. In childhood he composed hymns and prayers for his own use, but in later youth he entirely lost his former fervour. On 30 Jan. 1814, however, he heard a sermon by Timothy East of Birmingham at the Tabernacle, Moorfields, which changed his feelings from indifference to strong devotion. In September he became a member of the Tabernacle congregation, of which Matthew Wilks was minister, and began to take an active part in church work. The congregation were much interested in the work of the London Missionary Society, and Williams resolved to offer himself as a missionary. In July 1816 he applied to the directors, and was accepted after passing an examination before them. The islands of the Pacific had been selected by the founders of the London Missionary Society as the scene of their earliest efforts. For many years their agents made little progress, but at the time of Williams's offer of himself for the mission field they had achieved considerable successes, and were making urgent requests for fresh labourers. Impressed by their needs, the society responded by sending out Williams and several other young men after a training of a few months only. Tonkin released him from his apprenticeship, and on 30 Sept. he and several others were set apart at a service held in Surrey Chapel. On 17 Nov. he and his wife sailed for Sydney in the Harriet in the company of three other missionaries. In September 1817 they left Sydney in the Active for Eimeo, one of the Society Islands, near Tahiti, where there was already a mission station. Arriving at Papetoai on 17 Nov., Williams remained for some months assisting the missionaries and perfecting himself in the Tahiti language. During his stay several chiefs of the Leeward Group, who had assisted Pomare in regaining the sovereignty of Tahiti, visited Eimeo, and welcomed the project of establishing a mission station among their own islands. In consequence Williams and two other missionaries, John Muggridge Orsmond and William Ellis, with their wives, landed at Huahine on 20 June 1818, and were heartily received by the natives. The fame of their arrival drew crowds of visitors from the neighbouring islands, among them Tamatoa, the king of Raiatea, whose urgent request induced Williams and Lancelot Edward Threlkeld to remove on 11 Sept. 1818 to his own island, the largest of the group. It was the centre of the religious system of the inhabitants of the Leeward Islands, and contained ‘the temple and altar of Oro, the Mars and Moloch of the South Seas.’ By the time of his arrival at Raiatea Williams had acquired sufficient knowledge of the language to preach to the people. The way for the adoption of Christianity had been prepared by a visit two years before from Charles Wilson and Pomare, who were driven from Eimeo by a sudden gale, and the task of the missionaries was made easier by the approbation of the supreme chief, Tamatoa. While, however, the people were ready to adopt Christianity as a state religion, they were debased in their morals and inveterately idle. They also dwelt in so scattered a fashion that collective instruction was impossible. Williams induced them to form a common settlement, and to
