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 was appointed to the Royal Oak as acting-lieutenant; on 5 Sept. took part in the action off the Chesapeake, and on 12 April 1782 in the action near Dominica. On 12 April 1783 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Argo, in which he returned to England in 1784. In 1790 he was with Captain (afterwards Sir Charles) Thompson [q. v.] in the Elephant; in 1793 in the Centurion in the Channel, and in 1794 again with Thompson in the Vengeance in the West Indies. After the capture of Martinique he followed Thompson to the Vanguard. In 1796 he came home in the Minotaur, and was immediately appointed first lieutenant of the Prince George, the flagship of Rear-admiral (Sir William) Parker in the battle of Cape St. Vincent. For his service on this occasion Williams was promoted to the rank of commander and appointed acting captain of the Blenheim, in which Parker had hoisted his flag. He afterwards commanded the Dolphin storeship, and the San Ysidro as acting-captain. On bringing this ship to England his promotion was confirmed, to date 10 Nov. 1797, and for a few months he was flag-captain to Sir Charles Thompson in the Formidable, but in January 1798 he was put on half-pay. In 1803 he went out to the East Indies in the Russell. He returned in 1805 in the Ruby, his health having broken down. In 1810–12 he commanded the Dictator in the Baltic with Sir James (Lord de) Saumarez [q. v.]; and from 1812 to 1814 the Gloucester in the North Sea, Baltic, and West Indies. He had no further service, but became a rear-admiral on 9 April 1823, and died at his house in Queen's Square, Bath, on 1 March 1827. His wife predeceased him in 1825.

[Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biogr. II. (vol. i. pt. ii.) 856; Gent. Mag. 1827, i. 465; Service-book in the Public Record Office.]  WILLIAMS, ROBERT (1787?–1845), physician, born in London about 1787, was admitted a pensioner of Trinity College, Cambridge, on 27 June 1804, graduating in 1810 as M.B. and in 1816 as M.D. At the College of Physicians he was admitted an inceptor candidate on 12 July 1816, a candidate on 23 Dec. 1816, and a fellow on 22 Dec. 1817. He served the office of censor in 1831, and he was declared an elect on 20 March 1844. He was elected assistant-physician to St. Thomas's Hospital on 11 Dec. 1816, and on 1 Oct. 1817 he was elected physician to the charity in the room of William Lister, an office he retained until his death.

Williams died at his house in Lower Bedford Place on 24 Nov. 1845. He occupied himself for many years in an attempt to ascertain the virtues and properties of the drugs then in common use, for he was engaged throughout his life in seeking for specific remedies to cure disease. In the course of these inquiries he discovered the curative power of iodide of potassium in the later stages of syphilis. He also introduced bromide of potassium into English practice, though he did not employ it in the treatment of epilepsy. He was the author of ‘Elements of Medicine,’ London, 1836–41, 2 vols. 8vo.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys.; Medical Directory, 1846, p. 188; Feltoe's Memorials of J. F. South; manuscript records at Trinity Coll. Cambr. and at St. Thomas's Hospital, by the kind permission of the Master of Trinity and the Treasurer of St. Thomas's Hospital.]  WILLIAMS, ROBERT (1767–1850), Welsh bard, son of William Williams, was born at Betws Fawr in the parish of Llan Ystumdwy, Carnarvonshire, in 1767. His father was a small freeholder, and he succeeded him in the occupation of Betws Fawr, moving, however, towards the end of his life to Mynachty in the same district. ‘Robert ap Gwilym Ddu,’ as he was styled in bardic circles, became first known as the winner in 1792 of the Gwyneddigion Society's medal for the best ode on the ‘Massacre of the Bards.’ This was, however, his only success of the kind; a home-keeping farmer, he devoted himself henceforth to the writing of religious verse and eschewed eisteddfodau. He was the close friend and bardic tutor of his neighbour, David Owen (1784–1841) [q. v.] (‘Dewi Wyn’), and shared Owen's mistrust of the eisteddfod authorities of the day. His poems, almost entirely religious or commemorative, were published at Dolgelly in 1841 under the title ‘Gardd Eifion.’ They show a remarkable power of vigorous, clear expression, and include some of the best known stanzas in the language. Williams died on 11 June 1850, and was buried at Aber Erch. He married late in life; his only child, a daughter, Jane Elizabeth, died in 1834, at the age of seventeen, and ‘Gardd Eifion’ contains a touching elegy upon her.

[Williams's Eminent Welshmen; Leatheart's Hist. of the Gwyneddigion; Gardd Eifion.]  WILLIAMS, ROBERT (1810–1881), Celtic scholar, born at Conway, Carnarvonshire, on 29 June 1810, was the second son of Robert Williams, perpetual curate of Llandudno. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, as servitor, on 10 June 1828, and