Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/459

 tion was put up in the college chapel by his pupils and friends in Wales; and at Cambridge a brass memorial plate has been placed by some of his pupils in the ante-chapel of King's College.

Williams was of short stature, with a large head and massive brow, features of the Celtic type, deep-set dark blue eyes, and brown hair. On leaving Lampeter his friends and pupils presented him with an oil portrait by John Robertson, of Liverpool, which is a very good likeness. He bequeathed this portrait to King's College, Cambridge, on his wife's death.

Williams was endowed with considerable intellectual powers, to which he added sound scholarship and a good memory. He was ardent, enthusiastic, and deeply devotional. Bold and uncompromising in controversy, his private life was marked by great tenderness and strong family affection. Of a finely strung, sensitive, and nervous temperament, he felt too deeply the controversies and misunderstandings with which his life was beset, and, conscious of integrity, suffered much from insinuations to the contrary. His writings are characterised by a strong love of truth. He was attached to the church of England, and looked forward to a day when he would be acknowledged to have been a true son. He objected to being identified with any special party in the church. In ‘Hints to my Counsel,’ p. 1, he declares that he accepts the articles as they are, and claims to teach by them with fidelity and clearness. At the same time, he contended for entire freedom in all literary investigation of the scriptures, pleading for an open Bible and free criticism as the right of the clergy of the English church. He held very stringent views on clerical obligation (see article, Fortnightly Review, March 1868), but considered that subscription ‘does not imply a claim of divine perfection or a promise to abstain from suggesting improvements’ (Hints to my Counsel, p. 19).

Williams bequeathed his library (leaving such part as she chose to keep to his wife for her lifetime) to such town in Wales as would provide a suitable repository and means of paying a guardian of it, Swansea and Carnarvon to have the first choice. Swansea accepted the bequest, and all the books will eventually be sent thither.

Besides the works mentioned Williams wrote: 1. ‘A Defence of the Grant to Maynooth,’ 1845. 2. ‘Lays from the Cimbric Lyre, by Goronva Camlan,’ 1845. 3. ‘Lampeter Theology,’ 1856. 4. ‘Christian Freedom in the Council of Jerusalem: preached before the University of Cambridge with a Review of Bishop Ollivant's Charge,’ 1857. 5. ‘Orestes and the Avengers: an Hellenic Mystery, by Goronva Camlan,’ 1859. 6. ‘Persecution for the Word; with Postscript on the Interlocutory Judgment’ (farewell sermon at St. David's College), 1862. 7. ‘Owen Glendower: a Dramatic Biography, with other poems,’ 1870 (this was passing through the press at the time of his death). 8. ‘Psalms and Litanies,’ &c., 1872, 1876, and 1892 (which he was writing, and, when dying, desired might be published). 9. ‘Stray Thoughts from the Note-Books of Rowland Williams,’ 1878 and 1892. He was also the author of articles in the ‘Quarterly Review’ on ‘Methodism in Wales,’ vol. lxxxv. 1849, ‘The Church and Education in Wales,’ vol. lxxxvii. 1850, and ‘Bards of the Sixth Century,’ vol. xci. 1852.

[Life and Letters of Rowland Williams, D.D., edited by his wife, 2 vols. cr. 8vo, 1874; family papers and correspondence; verbatim reports of proceedings in the Court of Arches; Times, January 1870; Guardian, January 1870; see also the Rev. R. B. Kennard's Essays and Reviews; J. Fitzjames Stephen's Defence of Rowland Williams; the Rev. John Owen's Dr. Rowland Williams and his Place in Contemporary Religious Thought (Contemporary Review, April 1870); C. Kegan Paul's Biographical Sketches.] 

WILLIAMS, SAMUEL (1788–1853), draughtsman and wood engraver, was born at Colchester, of humble parentage, on 23 Feb. 1788. He was apprenticed to a Colchester printer named Marsden, but devoted all his spare time to drawing and engraving on wood, and subsequently adopted this as his profession. He first established himself in his native town, but in 1819 settled in London. His earliest patron was Crosby the publisher, for whom he drew and cut a series of illustrations to a work on natural history (1810), and he eventually became one of the ablest and best employed of English wood engravers, specially excelling in landscape work. He was also a clever and facile designer, and a large proportion of his cuts were done from his own drawings; these include the illustrations to Whittingham's edition of ‘Robinson Crusoe,’ 1822; Mrs. Trimmer's ‘Natural History,’ 1823–4; ‘The British Stage,’ 1826 and following years; Scott's Bible, 1833–4; ‘The Olio,’ a weekly magazine, 1828–33; Hone's ‘Every-Day Book,’ 1825–7; Lady C. Guest's ‘Mabinogion,’ 1838; Thomson's ‘Seasons,’ 1841; Selby's ‘British Forest Trees,’ 1842; and Miller's ‘Pictures of Country Life,’ 1847. Among his best cuts from the designs of other artists are those in Wiffen's