Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/484

 WILLIAMS

WILLIAMS

Eationalistic. He was, however, appointed envoy extraordinary to Berlin in 1750, and he there met and made friends with Voltaire. In 1751 he was envoy to Dresden, and in 1755 to St. Petersburg, where he did distinguished work. Williams was a very intimate friend of Lord Hervey and Lord Holland, and his reputation for &quot; Atheism &quot; probably means that he was, like them, a Deist. When his works were published in three volumes in 1822, the Quarterly was outraged at the &quot;horrible blasphemies &quot; in them. In spite of these, and of the fact that he lived laxly and died by his own hand, he was buried with great honour in Westminster Abbey. D. Nov. 2, 1759.

WILLIAMS, David, Welsh writer and reformer. B. 1738. Ed. Carmarthen Academy. Williams entered the Calvinist ministry, in fulfilment of a promise to his dying father, in 1758, and took charge of a congregation at Frome. He was, like one of his Welsh predecessors there, T. Morgan, compelled by his heresies to abandon it, and he took a chapel at Exeter. There he framed a new form of service (A Liturgy on the Principles of the Christian Eeligion}, and was again forced to move. From 1769 to 1773 he ministered at Highgate, but he was in time compelled to leave the Church. In 1771 he had pub lished another plea for reform (The Philo sopher). His works were plainly Deistic, and he took to teaching. In 1774 Benjamin Franklin lived at his house in London, and together they drew up a new form of public worship (A Liturgy on the Universal Principles of Eeligion and Morality, 1776). It was so purely Deistic that copies were received with approval by Frederick the Great and Voltaire. A chapel was opened in London, and for three years used this liturgy, Williams supporting himself by writing and teaching. His views are given in his Lectures on the Universal Principles of Eeligion and Morality, and he translated Voltaire s Treatise on Toleration. He was invited to France and enrolled a citizen of 895

that country. None questioned his high and earnest character even Chalmers admires it but the only creed he professed was, in his own words : &quot; I believe in God. Amen.&quot; D. June 29, 1816.

WILLIAMS, Roger, B.A., reformer. B. about 1604. Ed. Button s Hospital (Charterhouse) and Cambridge (Pembroke College). He took clerical orders, and was for some time chaplain to Sir W. Masham. Developing moderate Eationalist views, he felt unable to serve in the Anglican Church and went to America. At first he preached with great success in Boston ; but his views again gave trouble, and he took a pulpit at Salem. The Boston authorities expelled him from Massachusetts for his heresies, and he settled in Indian territory and joined the Anabaptists. Within a few months he abandoned his new creed, and declared himself &quot; a Seeker.&quot; This name was adopted in the seventeenth century by a body of men and women, not organized in a sect, who stood outside all the Churches, and professed to be in search of the truth (see Professor Masson s Life of Milton, vol. iii, p. 153). Williams probably regarded himself as an unattached Chris tian, but seems to have been little more than a Theist. In any case, he bravely dissented from all the Churches, which, in such an age, may entitle him to notice here. He founded a large and prosperous settlement, and in 1643 went to London to secure a charter protecting it against the vindictive Puritans. On the voyage he compiled a grammar and dictionary of the Indian language, and in London he pub lished a forcible plea for religious toleration (The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution], which was burned by the hangman by order of Parliament. He got his charter, however, and preserved his free colony. From 1654 to 1657 he was Governor of Khode Island, where he protected the Quakers, while dis senting strongly from their creed. D. 1683.

WILLIAMS, William Mattieu, chemist and educationist. B. Feb. 6, 1820. 896