nation. After the death of his wife on 24 Oct. 1827 Williams in his depression gave up the ministry. He died at Flemingston on 23 Nov. 1844.
His first published work was a (Welsh) elegy upon Peter Williams (Carmarthen, 1796). After this nothing appeared from his pen until 1812, when he published at Merthyr a small volume of hymns entitled ‘Llais y Durtur yn y Wlad;’ this was reissued, with large additions, in 1824 (Cardiff), as ‘Dyfroedd Bethesda;’ and a third edition, with the same title, followed in 1841 (Merthyr). ‘Perl mewn adfyd’ (Merthyr, 1814) was also a collection of hymns. Elegies written by Williams, and published in pamphlet form in 1817, 1828, and 1830, are extant. His poetical works were published in one volume at Hafod in 1882. His fame rests upon his hymns, many of which are still in high favour among Welsh congregations. Contemporaries speak of his handsome presence, his emotional temperament, and the influence which his career and social standing gave him among the nonconformists of south Glamorgan.
[Hanes Eglwysi Annibynol Cymru, ii. 233–41; Methodistiaeth Cymru, iii. 95; Rowlands's Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry; Ashton's Hanes Llenyddiaeth Cymreig; Catalogue of the Welsh books in Cardiff Public Library, 1898.]
WILLIAMS, THOMAS WALTER (1763–1833), barrister, born in 1763, was the son of Walter Williams, a London attorney, residing in Lamb's Conduit Street. He entered St. Paul's school on 6 Nov. 1772, and afterwards studied law and was called to the bar, but was not much known as a pleader, his repute chiefly resting on his writings. He died in 1833.
Besides numerous abstracts of acts of parliament, Williams was the author of: 1. ‘A Compendious Digest of the Statute Law from Magna Charta to 27 George III,’ London, 1787, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1809, 2 vols. 8vo; supplements in 1809 and 1812. 2. ‘Original Precedents in Conveyances,’ London, 1788–1792, 4 vols. 8vo; new edit. 1808. 3. ‘The whole Law relative to the Duty and Office of a Justice of the Peace,’ London, 1793–5, 4 vols. 8vo; 3rd edit., by Harold Nuttall Tomlins, 1812, 4 vols. 8vo. 4. ‘An Abridgment of Cases argued and determined in the Courts of Law during the Reign of George III,’ London, 1798–1803, 5 vols. 8vo. 5. ‘The Practice of the Commissioners, Assessors, and other Officers under the Acts relating to the Assessed Taxes,’ London, 1804, 8vo. 6. ‘A General Dictionary of the Law,’ London, 1812, 8vo; new edit. 1816. 7. ‘The Jurisdiction and the Duties of Justices of the Peace, and Authority of Parish Officers in all matters relating to Parochial Law,’ London, 1812, 2 vols. 8vo; new edit. 1817. 8. ‘The Farmer's Lawyer,’ London, 1819, 8vo. He also edited the ‘Law Journal’ between 1804 and 1806 with J. Morgan, and in 1825 brought out a new edition of ‘The Precedent of Precedents’ by William Sheppard (d. 1675?) [q. v.]
[Pantheon of the Age, 1825; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Gardiner's Reg. of St. Paul's School, 1884, p. 153; Biogr. Dict. of Living Authors, 1816.]
WILLIAMS, Sir WILLIAM (1634–1700), solicitor-general and speaker of the House of Commons, born in 1634 at Nantanog in the parish of Llantrisant in Anglesey, was the second son of Hugh Williams, D.D. (1596–1670), rector of Llantrisant and Llanrhyddlad in that county, and subsequently canon of Bangor and (Vaenol) prebendary of St. Asaph (Browne Willis, Bangor, p. 170, and St. Asaph, p. 113; Memorial Inscription in Llantrisant Church). His mother was Emma, daughter and sole heiress of John Dolben of Caeau Gwynion, near Denbigh, and niece of David Dolben [q. v.], bishop of Bangor (Arch. Cambr. i. iv. 280; Dwnn, ii. 76, 266 n.; Pennant, Tours in Wales, ed. 1810, iii. 78).
Young Williams became a scholar of Jesus College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 7 Nov. 1650, but did not proceed to a degree. He was admitted student of Gray's Inn on 12 Nov. 1650, was called to the bar in 1658, and was treasurer of his inn in 1681. On 31 July 1661 he was granted, with another, the reversion of the office of prothonotary and clerk of the crown in the counties of Denbigh and Montgomery (Brit. Mus. Sloane MS. 856, No. 32). He was not long in acquiring a practice, for an old story tells how he owed his wife to his having won an important lawsuit at Shrewsbury for Walter Kyffin of Glasgoed, in the parish of Llansilin, Denbighshire, whose eldest daughter and heiress, Margaret, he married on 14 April 1664 (Eyton, Sheriffs of Shropshire, p. 156; the story is given differently in Yorke, p. 99). In the following year he added to his territorial influence by purchasing the Llanforda estate from Edward Lloyd (father of Edward Lhuyd [q. v.]), who described Williams as being even then ‘the leviathan of our laws and lands’ (Eyton; see original correspondence in Byegones, 2nd ser. iv. 265, 324). In 1667 he was appointed recorder of Chester. He unsuccessfully contested the borough in
