to the Trinity and to rebut the charge of heresy.
Peter Bayly Williams (1765–1836), Williams's third son, was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, whence he matriculated on 10 Oct. 1785, graduating B.A. from Christ Church in 1790 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.) He was from 1792 onwards incumbent of Llanrug with Llanberis in Carnarvonshire, where he died on 22 Nov. 1836 (Gent. Mag. 1837, i. 106). He was a good Welsh critic and a painstaking and well-informed antiquary. Many poor boys of promising parts were befriended and educated by him. He wrote a sketch of the ‘History and Antiquities of Carnarvonshire’ for a tourists' guide issued in 1821 (Carnarvon, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1828), as well as a similar work on Anglesey, which was published in the ‘Gwyneddion’ for 1832. Cathrall's ‘History of North Wales’ (1828) is also said to have been Williams's production. In 1833 he was awarded the Cymmrodorion medal for ‘An Historical Account of the Monasteries and Abbeys in Wales,’ which was published in the ‘Transactions’ of that society for 1843. He published in 1825 an excellent Welsh translation of two works of Baxter's, ‘The Saints' Everlasting Rest’ and ‘A Call to the Unconverted’ (London, 8vo). He is to be distinguished from another P. B. Williames (1802–1871), one of the originators and editors in 1829 of the ‘Cambrian Quarterly Magazine,’ to which Peter Bayly Williams also contributed (see i. 273; Williams, Montgomeryshire Worthies, p. 309).
Another Peter Williams (1756?–1837), Welsh divine, born about 1756, was son of Edward Williams of Northop, Flint. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 23 May 1776, proceeding B.A. in 1780, M.A. in 1783, B.D. and D.D. in 1802 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.) He was for a time chaplain of Christ Church. He returned to Wales about 1790 to become vicar of Bangor and headmaster of Bangor grammar school, and was subsequently rector of Llanbedrog, Carnarvonshire (1802–37), archdeacon of Merioneth (1802–9), and canon of Bangor (1809–1818). He died at Llanbedrog on 20 Feb. 1837. He was the author (among other works) of:
- ‘Letters concerning Education,’ 1786, 4to.
- ‘A Short Vindication of the Established Church, in which the Objections of the Methodists and Dissenters are dispassionately considered,’ Oxford, 1803, 8vo.
- ‘The First Book of Homer's Iliad translated in blank verse,’ 1806, 8vo.
- Four volumes of Welsh sermons (‘Casgliad o Bregethau’), Dolgelly, 1813–14, 12mo.
- ‘Clerical Legacy,’ Carnarvon, 1831, 12mo, a reprint of sermons preached before the university of Oxford ‘during sixteen years' residence there,’ and at ordinations and visitations.
He also published in 1824 an annotated edition of ‘Y Ffydd Ddiffuant’ (Dolgelly) by Charles Edwards [q. v.] (see the Preface to Edmunds's ed. 1856), and is said to have written an English life of that author (Foulkes, Enwogion Cymru, p. 1022; Allibone, Dict. of Engl. Lit.; and Introduction to ‘Clerical Legacy’).
Peter Williams, the hypochondriacal evangelist who figures so largely in ‘Lavengro’ (chap. lxxi–lxxxi.), was probably a creation of George Borrow's own imagination, but at all events could not possibly have been either of the Williamses mentioned above.
[Peter Williams (the expositor) left behind him an unfinished autobiography which, with additional details as to the family, was printed in the English Works of (his son) Eliezer Williams, London, 1840. It had previously been utilised by Owen Williams of Waunfawr in compiling his ‘Hanes Bywyd Peter Williams’ (Carnarvon, 1817, 8vo). This account was subsequently completed by Peter Bayly Williams, and published for the first time in an illustrated edition of the Family Bible issued by Fisher & Co., London, in 1823. The earliest independent memoir, by Thomas Charles of Bala, appeared in his quarterly Trysorfa for 1813, pp. 483–5. Elegies containing biographical details, by Thomas Williams of Peterston, Glamorganshire, by John Thomas of Rhaiadr (Carmarthen), and by Maurice Hughes (Trevecca), had, however, been published in 1796, while John Williams of St. Athan's had also written in July 1791 a poem giving the circumstances of Williams's expulsion (‘Y Gân Ddiddarfod’). For further particulars of Williams's evangelistic work see Robert Jones's Drych yr Amseroedd, 1820, pp. 90–7, 107, 146; Hughes's Methodistiaeth Cymru, 1851, 3 vols. passim; Rees's Protestant Nonconformity of Wales, 2nd edit. pp. 385–6, 408, 509; W. Williams's Welsh Calvinistic Methodism, pp. 17, 47–50, 52, 144–8; Life and Times of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, ii. 109; Y Tadau Methodistaidd, 1895, i. 433–58 (with a reproduction of the alleged spurious portrait); D. Evans's Sunday Schools in Wales, pp. 39–42. As to his expulsion, see also in addition to the foregoing: Y Traethodydd, 1893–4; Y Drysorfa, September 1895, and correspondence in London Kelt for October and November 1896. For his literary work see Rowlands's Cambrian Bibliography, and Ashton's Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymreig, pp. 296–304; and generally Williams's Eminent Welshmen, p. 532; Foulkes's Enwogion Cymru, p. 1019, Y Gwyddoniadur Cymreig (Encyclopædia Cambrensis), x. 285–97, and Cardiff Library Welsh Catalogue.]
WILLIAMS, RICHARD D'ALTON (1822–1862), Irish poet, known as ‘Shamrock’ of the ‘Nation,’ born in Dublin on
