David Williams (philosopher)
Encyclopedia
David Williams was a Welsh
philosopher of the Enlightenment
period. He was an ordained minister, theologian
and political polemic
ist, and was the founder in 1788 of the Royal Literary Fund
.
. His early education was partly under John Smith, vicar of Eglwysilan, and he went on to a local school run by his namesake, David Williams (1709–1784). His father, William David, was converted to Methodism
by Howell Harris
; it was at his request that David Williams entered the ministry. Rev. David, an unfortunate speculator in mines and miners' tools, died in 1752; the family consisted of one surviving son and two daughters.
His father on his deathbed made David promise to enter Carmarthen Academy to qualify as a dissenting minister. He studied there, with an exhibition from the London presbyterian board (1753 to Christmas 1757), under Evan Davies, a pupil of John Eames
. The academy, hitherto Calvinist, had begun to acquire a heterodox repute. From February 1755 the London congregational board sent no students, owing to the alleged Arianism
of Davies's assistant, Samuel Thomas. Davies himself resigned his chair in 1759 under suspicion of Arminianism
. Williams' views were unconventional, largely thanks to his four years study at Carmarthen Academy, and he was regarded as a Deist
.
, Somerset
, on a stipend of £45. This was the congregation from which Thomas Morgan
, the deist, had been dismissed in 1720. Williams's theological views did not prove satisfactory. In 1761 he moved to the Mint meeting, Exeter
, founded by James Peirce
. Here he was reordained. He prepared A Liturgy on the Principles of the Christian Religion, which is said to have been adopted by his congregation. He soon quarreled with 'elder members' who objected to his opinions. He retorted by finding fault with their morals. By way of an 'accommodation' he left Exeter about 1769 to take charge of a waning congregation in Southwood Lane, Highgate
. To this congregation the father of John Wilkes
used to drive in a coach-and-six. In this charge he appears to have remained till 1773. His withdrawal was ascribed by himself to 'the intrigues of a lady', and to no rejection of revelation, 'which he had taken for granted'. His successor, in 1774, was Joseph Towers
. His first publication, The Philosopher, in Three Conversations, 1771, (dedicated to Lord Mansfield
and Bishop Warburton
), containing a project of church reform, drew the attention of John Jebb. With the co-operation of John Lee, a proposal was set on foot for opening a chapel in London with an expurgated prayer-book. Williams was to draw attention to the plan through the public papers. His communications to the Public Advertiser republished as Essays on Public Worship, Patriotism, and Projects of Reformation, 1773, were so deistic in tone as to put an end to the scheme.
whom he met at the house of a hostess of 'the wits of the time.' With this lady he visited Henry Mossop
, the actor, who attributed his misfortunes to Garrick's neglect. Williams wrote to the papers embodying Mossop's view, but the communication was not printed. Three
months later he published his keen but truculent Letter to David Garrick, 1772. According to a note by John Philip Kemble
in the British Museum copy there was a second edition; Williams, in an advertisement at the end of his Lectures, 1779, vol. i., claims the authorship of the Letter, and affirms that there was 'a surreptitious edition'. Morris, who reprints the Letter with a wrong date (1770), says it was withdrawn from sale. In the Private Correspondence of David Garrick, 1831, is a letter (2 October 1772), signed D. Ws hinting that the published 'Letter' was by 'a young man who is making himself known us a first-rate genius.... His name is Williams. He is intimate at Captain Pye's. Goldsmith
knows him, and I have seen him go into Johnson
's'. James Boaden
, the editor of the 'Correspondence' calls the writer (evidently Williams himself) an 'arrogant boy '. On Mossop's death (18 November 1773) Williams wrote to Garrick, and received a touching reply.
, married a wife without a fortune, and set up a school. As the fruit of his ministry he published a volume of Sermons, chiefly upon Religious Hypocrisy (1774). His educational ideas, founded on those of John Amos Comenius, he embodied in his Treatise on Education(1774). Book-learning he subordinated to scientific training based on a first-hand knowledge of facts. He made a novel application of the drunken helot plan, obtaining from a workhouse
a 'lying boy' as an object lesson. His school 'prospered beyond his expectations', but the death of his wife (in 1775?) for a time unmanned him. He tore himself away, 'leaving his scholars to shift for themselves', and 'secluded himself in a distant country' for 'many months'. He went to Buxton
, according to some accounts; he never returned to Chelsea.
In 1774 Benjamin Franklin
'took refuge from a political storm' in Williams's house, and became interested in his method of teaching arithmetic. Franklin joined a small club formed at Chelsea by Williams, the manufacturer Thomas Bentley
(partner of Josiah Wedgwood
), and James "Athenian" Stuart. At this club Williams broached the scheme of a society for relieving distressed authors, which Franklin did not encourage him to pursue. It was noted at the club that most of the members, though 'good men', yet 'never went to church'. Franklin regretted the want of 'a rational form of devotion'. To supply this, Williams, with aid from Franklin, drew up a form. It was printed six times before it satisfied its projectors, and was eventually published as A Liturgy on the Universal Principles of Religion and Morality, 1776. It does not contain his reduction of the creed to one article, 'I believe in God. Amen'.
On 7 April 1776, Williams opened for morning service a vacant chapel near Cavendish Square
(the building was replaced in 1858 by All Saints, Margaret Street
), using his liturgy, and reading lectures, with texts usually from the Bible, sometimes from classic authors. He got 'about a score of auditors', who seem to have been persons of distinction. The opening lecture was published. Copies of the liturgy were sent to Frederick the Great
and to Voltaire
, who returned appreciative letters in bad French and good English respectively. International botanical travellers Sir Joseph Banks
and Daniel Solander
'now and then peeped into the chapel, and got away as fast as they decently could'. Williams's Letter to the Body of Protestant Dissenters, 1777, is a plea for such breadth of toleration as would legally cover such services as his. All the expenses fell on Williams, who was saved from ruin only by the subscription to his Lectures on the Universal Principles and Duties of Religion and Morality 1779. These lectures (critical rather than constructive, and not eloquent, though well written) were read at the chapel in 1776–1777. The experiment is said to have lasted four years, but it is probable that after the second year the services were not held in Margaret Street; they were transferred, on the advice of Robert Melville
, to a room in the British coffee house, Charing Cross
, Melville giving a dinner in Brewer Street
after service, 'with excellent Madeira
'. The statement by Thomas Somerville that Melville took him, in the period 1779–1785, to the service in 'Portland' Square is no doubt due to a slip of memory. Somerville's further statement that the 'dispersion of his flock' was due to Williams's 'immorality' becoming 'notorious' seems a groundless slander. No hint of it is conveyed in the satiric lampoon Orpheus, Priest of Nature 1781, which affirms, on the contrary, that Williams's principles were too strict for his hearers. The appellation 'Priest of Nature' is said to have been first given him by Franklin; 'Orpheus' ascribes it to 'a Socratic woollen-draper of Covent Garden
'. Gregoire affirms that he had it from Williams that a number of his followers passed from deism
to atheism
.
Williams now supported himself by taking private pupils. After the speech of Sir George Savile on 17 March 1779 in favour of an amendment of the Toleration Act
, Williams published a letter on The Nature and Extent of Intellectual Liberty
, 1779, claiming that religious toleration
should be without restriction. It was answered by Manasseh Dawes
. In the same year, and with the same object, he translated and published Voltaire's Treatise on Toleration, Ignorant Philosopher and Commentary on Beccaria. In 1780 he issued A Plan of Association on Constitutional Principles; and on the formation of county associations for parliamentary reform he published his Letters on Political Liberty (1782). This was translated into French the following year by Jacques Pierre Brissot
, then in London conducting the Lyceum
. Jean-Marie Roland, vicomte de la Platière
, a friend of Brissot, visited London in 1784, when Williams made his acquaintance.
Williams's publications at this period include Letters concerning Education 1785; Royal Recollections on a Tour to Cheltenham (anon.), 1788; Lectures on Political Principles 1789; Lectures on Education, 1789; Lessons to a Young Prince (anon.), 1790.
, John Gardner
(vicar of Battersea
), and perhaps the printer John Nichols
. Fruitless applications were made after 1783 to William Pitt the Younger
(who thought the matter very important), Charles James Fox
, Edmund Burke
, and Sir Joseph Banks
. An advertisement was published (October 1786), 'with no material effect'. The death in a debtors' prison (1 April 1787) of Floyer Sydenham
led Williams to press the matter. The club, not being unanimous, was dissolved, and another (of eight members) formed. At its first meeting (spring of 1788) the constitution of the Literary Fund, drawn up by Williams, was adopted, each member subscribing a guinea. An advertisement (10 May 1788) invited further subscriptions. The first general meeting to elect officers was held on Tuesday 18 May 1790 at the Prince of Wales's coffee-house. In the course of twelve years £1,738 was distributed among 105 persons. The society was incorporated 19 May 1818; in 1842 it became the Royal Literary Fund
. By the close of the century it possessed an income exceeding £4,000, half from investments, and half from annual contributions.
, and in 1792 visited the county to collect materials. Shortly afterwards Roland
, during his second term of office as minister of the interior, invited Williams to Paris
. He went over about August 1792, was made a French citizen, and remained till the execution (21 January 1793) of Louis XVI
, a measure which he strongly deprecated. While in Paris he published Observations sur la derniere Constitution de la France, 1793. He brought with him, on his return, a letter to William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, from Lebrun
, minister of war, who wished to make Williams a medium of communication between the two governments; but no notice was taken of it. An engagement previously entered into for completing the continuation of Hume
's History of England was cancelled, owing to the political odium incurred by his visit to France. His History of Monmouthshire, 1796, with illustrations drawn and partly engraved by his friend Gardner, and a very modest introduction, was considered a standard work on the subject; unfortunately it has no index.
After the peace of Amiens
(1802) he again visited France. It was surmised that he had been entrusted with some confidential mission by the English government. Before leaving he had published Claims of Literature, 1802, an authorised account of the Literary Fund. On his return he issued one or two anonymous political tracts, showing, it is said, a diminished confidence in revolutionary methods. His authorship of some anonymous publications is doubtful. On internal evidence he is credited with Egeria, 1803, intended as a first volume of a periodical devoted to political economy. His pecuniary resources failed him.
He had suffered from paralytic attacks, and had a severe stroke in 1811, from which time his faculties declined. He was invited to take up his abode in the house of the Literary Fund, 36 Gerrard Street, Soho
, and there he remained till his death, regularly attending the society's meetings. At a special meeting of the general committee, held without Williams's knowledge on 25 July 1815, it was resolved to offer him £50 every six months, as evidence of the committee's 'attachment to the first principles of their society'. Only one installment was paid before his death on 29 June 1816. A second installment was handed to his niece and housekeeper, Mary Watkins. On 6 July he was buried in St. Anne's Church, Soho, where there is a brief inscription to his memory.
His will, dated 16 July 1814, left his papers to his executors, Richard Yates, chaplain of Chelsea Hospital, and Thomas Wittingham; his other property to his niece
and housekeeper, Mary Watkins (died 5 February 1845), who removed from Gerrard Street to Lower Sloane Street, and afterwards to King's Road, Chelsea.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
philosopher of the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
period. He was an ordained minister, theologian
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and political polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
ist, and was the founder in 1788 of the Royal Literary Fund
Royal Literary Fund
The Royal Literary Fund is a benevolent fund set up to help published British writers in financial difficulties. It was founded by Reverend David Williams in 1790 and has received bequests and donations, including royal patronage, ever since...
.
Upbringing
Williams was born in a house called Waunwaelod in Eglwysilan near CaerphillyCaerphilly
Caerphilly is a town in the county borough of Caerphilly, south Wales, located at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley, with a population of approximately 31,000. It is a commuter town of Cardiff and Newport, which are located some 7.5 miles and 12 miles away, respectively...
. His early education was partly under John Smith, vicar of Eglwysilan, and he went on to a local school run by his namesake, David Williams (1709–1784). His father, William David, was converted to Methodism
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
by Howell Harris
Howell Harris
Hywel Harris was one of the main leaders of the Welsh Methodist revival in the 18th century, along with Daniel Rowland and William Williams Pantycelyn.-Life:...
; it was at his request that David Williams entered the ministry. Rev. David, an unfortunate speculator in mines and miners' tools, died in 1752; the family consisted of one surviving son and two daughters.
His father on his deathbed made David promise to enter Carmarthen Academy to qualify as a dissenting minister. He studied there, with an exhibition from the London presbyterian board (1753 to Christmas 1757), under Evan Davies, a pupil of John Eames
John Eames
-Life:He was a native of London. He was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School on 10 March 1696–7, and was subsequently trained for the dissenting ministry. He preached only once and seems never to have been ordained....
. The academy, hitherto Calvinist, had begun to acquire a heterodox repute. From February 1755 the London congregational board sent no students, owing to the alleged Arianism
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
of Davies's assistant, Samuel Thomas. Davies himself resigned his chair in 1759 under suspicion of Arminianism
Arminianism
Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...
. Williams' views were unconventional, largely thanks to his four years study at Carmarthen Academy, and he was regarded as a Deist
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
.
Ordination
Williams was ordained in 1758 to the charge of the dissenting congregation at FromeFrome
Frome is a town and civil parish in northeast Somerset, England. Located at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, the town is built on uneven high ground, and centres around the River Frome. The town is approximately south of Bath, east of the county town, Taunton and west of London. In the 2001...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, on a stipend of £45. This was the congregation from which Thomas Morgan
Thomas Morgan (deist)
-Biography:Morgan was first a dissenter preacher, then a practicer of healing among the Quakers, and finally a writer.He was the author of a large three-volume work entitled The Moral Philosopher. It is a dialogue between a Christian Jew, Theophanus, and a Christian deist, Philalethes...
, the deist, had been dismissed in 1720. Williams's theological views did not prove satisfactory. In 1761 he moved to the Mint meeting, Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
, founded by James Peirce
James Peirce
James Peirce was an English dissenting minister, the catalyst for the Salter's Hall controversy.-Early life:The son of John Peirce, he was born at Wapping about 1674. His parents, who were in easy circumstances, were members of the congregational church at Stepney, under Matthew Mead...
. Here he was reordained. He prepared A Liturgy on the Principles of the Christian Religion, which is said to have been adopted by his congregation. He soon quarreled with 'elder members' who objected to his opinions. He retorted by finding fault with their morals. By way of an 'accommodation' he left Exeter about 1769 to take charge of a waning congregation in Southwood Lane, Highgate
Highgate
Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....
. To this congregation the father of John Wilkes
John Wilkes
John Wilkes was an English radical, journalist and politician.He was first elected Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of voters—rather than the House of Commons—to determine their representatives...
used to drive in a coach-and-six. In this charge he appears to have remained till 1773. His withdrawal was ascribed by himself to 'the intrigues of a lady', and to no rejection of revelation, 'which he had taken for granted'. His successor, in 1774, was Joseph Towers
Joseph Towers
-Life:He was born in Southwark on 31 March 1737. His father was a secondhand bookseller, and at twelve years old he was employed as a stationer's errand boy. In 1754 he was apprenticed to Robert Goadby of Sherborne, Dorset, a Whig supporter, and influential through his newspaper, the Sherborne...
. His first publication, The Philosopher, in Three Conversations, 1771, (dedicated to Lord Mansfield
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, SL, PC was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. Born to Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth, Scotland before moving to London at the age of 13 to take up a place at Westminster School...
and Bishop Warburton
William Warburton
William Warburton was an English critic and churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1759.-Life:He was born at Newark, where his father, who belonged to an old Cheshire family, was town clerk. William was educated at Oakham and Newark grammar schools, and in 1714 he was articled to Mr Kirke, an...
), containing a project of church reform, drew the attention of John Jebb. With the co-operation of John Lee, a proposal was set on foot for opening a chapel in London with an expurgated prayer-book. Williams was to draw attention to the plan through the public papers. His communications to the Public Advertiser republished as Essays on Public Worship, Patriotism, and Projects of Reformation, 1773, were so deistic in tone as to put an end to the scheme.
Letter to David Garrick
A taste for the drama led to his acquaintance with David GarrickDavid Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
whom he met at the house of a hostess of 'the wits of the time.' With this lady he visited Henry Mossop
Henry Mossop
-Life:He was born in Dunmore, County Galway where his father was a clergyman. He made his first stage appearance as Zanga in Young's tragedy The Revenge at the Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin in 1749....
, the actor, who attributed his misfortunes to Garrick's neglect. Williams wrote to the papers embodying Mossop's view, but the communication was not printed. Three
months later he published his keen but truculent Letter to David Garrick, 1772. According to a note by John Philip Kemble
John Philip Kemble
John Philip Kemble was an English actor. He was born into a theatrical family as the eldest son of Roger Kemble, actor-manager of a touring troupe. His elder sister Sarah Siddons achieved fame with him on the stage of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane...
in the British Museum copy there was a second edition; Williams, in an advertisement at the end of his Lectures, 1779, vol. i., claims the authorship of the Letter, and affirms that there was 'a surreptitious edition'. Morris, who reprints the Letter with a wrong date (1770), says it was withdrawn from sale. In the Private Correspondence of David Garrick, 1831, is a letter (2 October 1772), signed D. Ws hinting that the published 'Letter' was by 'a young man who is making himself known us a first-rate genius.... His name is Williams. He is intimate at Captain Pye's. Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
knows him, and I have seen him go into Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
's'. James Boaden
James Boaden
-Life:He was the son of William Boaden, a merchant in the Russia trade. He was born at Whitehaven, Cumberland, on 23 May 1762, and at an early age came with his parents to London, where he was educated for commerce...
, the editor of the 'Correspondence' calls the writer (evidently Williams himself) an 'arrogant boy '. On Mossop's death (18 November 1773) Williams wrote to Garrick, and received a touching reply.
School and churches
In 1773 Williams took a house in Lawrence Street, ChelseaChelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
, married a wife without a fortune, and set up a school. As the fruit of his ministry he published a volume of Sermons, chiefly upon Religious Hypocrisy (1774). His educational ideas, founded on those of John Amos Comenius, he embodied in his Treatise on Education(1774). Book-learning he subordinated to scientific training based on a first-hand knowledge of facts. He made a novel application of the drunken helot plan, obtaining from a workhouse
Workhouse
In England and Wales a workhouse, colloquially known as a spike, was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment...
a 'lying boy' as an object lesson. His school 'prospered beyond his expectations', but the death of his wife (in 1775?) for a time unmanned him. He tore himself away, 'leaving his scholars to shift for themselves', and 'secluded himself in a distant country' for 'many months'. He went to Buxton
Buxton
Buxton is a spa town in Derbyshire, England. It has the highest elevation of any market town in England. Located close to the county boundary with Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, Buxton is described as "the gateway to the Peak District National Park"...
, according to some accounts; he never returned to Chelsea.
In 1774 Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
'took refuge from a political storm' in Williams's house, and became interested in his method of teaching arithmetic. Franklin joined a small club formed at Chelsea by Williams, the manufacturer Thomas Bentley
Thomas Bentley (manufacturer)
Thomas Bentley was an English manufacturer of porcelain, known for his partnership with Josiah Wedgwood.-Life:He was born at Scropton, Derbyshire, on 1 January 1731. His father, Thomas Bentley, was a country gentleman of some property...
(partner of Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood was an English potter, founder of the Wedgwood company, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family...
), and James "Athenian" Stuart. At this club Williams broached the scheme of a society for relieving distressed authors, which Franklin did not encourage him to pursue. It was noted at the club that most of the members, though 'good men', yet 'never went to church'. Franklin regretted the want of 'a rational form of devotion'. To supply this, Williams, with aid from Franklin, drew up a form. It was printed six times before it satisfied its projectors, and was eventually published as A Liturgy on the Universal Principles of Religion and Morality, 1776. It does not contain his reduction of the creed to one article, 'I believe in God. Amen'.
On 7 April 1776, Williams opened for morning service a vacant chapel near Cavendish Square
Cavendish Square
Cavendish Square is a public square in the West End of London, very close to Oxford Circus, where the two main shopping thoroughfares of Oxford Street and Regent Street meet. It is located at the eastern end of Wigmore Street, which connects it to Portman Square, part of the Portman Estate, to its...
(the building was replaced in 1858 by All Saints, Margaret Street
All Saints, Margaret Street
All Saints, Margaret Street is an Anglican church in London built in the High Victorian Gothic style by the architect William Butterfield and completed in 1859....
), using his liturgy, and reading lectures, with texts usually from the Bible, sometimes from classic authors. He got 'about a score of auditors', who seem to have been persons of distinction. The opening lecture was published. Copies of the liturgy were sent to Frederick the Great
Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
and to Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
, who returned appreciative letters in bad French and good English respectively. International botanical travellers Sir Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
and Daniel Solander
Daniel Solander
Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander was a Swedish naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university educated scientist to set foot on Australian soil.-Biography:...
'now and then peeped into the chapel, and got away as fast as they decently could'. Williams's Letter to the Body of Protestant Dissenters, 1777, is a plea for such breadth of toleration as would legally cover such services as his. All the expenses fell on Williams, who was saved from ruin only by the subscription to his Lectures on the Universal Principles and Duties of Religion and Morality 1779. These lectures (critical rather than constructive, and not eloquent, though well written) were read at the chapel in 1776–1777. The experiment is said to have lasted four years, but it is probable that after the second year the services were not held in Margaret Street; they were transferred, on the advice of Robert Melville
Robert Melville
Robert Melvill was a Scottish soldier, botanist and inventor. He served as a general in the British Army and was a prominent antiquary....
, to a room in the British coffee house, Charing Cross
Charing Cross
Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London, England. It is named after the now demolished Eleanor cross that stood there, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross is now occupied by an equestrian...
, Melville giving a dinner in Brewer Street
Brewer Street
Brewer Street is a street in the Soho area of central London, England, running west to east from Glasshouse Street to Wardour Street. It was first developed in the late 17th century by the landowner, Sir William Pulteney. It first appears on a map of 1664, and was built up over the following...
after service, 'with excellent Madeira
Madeira wine
Madeira is a fortified Portuguese wine made in the Madeira Islands. Some wines produced in small quantities in California and Texas are also referred to as "Madeira", or "Madera", although those wines do not conform to the EU PDO regulations...
'. The statement by Thomas Somerville that Melville took him, in the period 1779–1785, to the service in 'Portland' Square is no doubt due to a slip of memory. Somerville's further statement that the 'dispersion of his flock' was due to Williams's 'immorality' becoming 'notorious' seems a groundless slander. No hint of it is conveyed in the satiric lampoon Orpheus, Priest of Nature 1781, which affirms, on the contrary, that Williams's principles were too strict for his hearers. The appellation 'Priest of Nature' is said to have been first given him by Franklin; 'Orpheus' ascribes it to 'a Socratic woollen-draper of Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
'. Gregoire affirms that he had it from Williams that a number of his followers passed from deism
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
to atheism
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
.
Williams now supported himself by taking private pupils. After the speech of Sir George Savile on 17 March 1779 in favour of an amendment of the Toleration Act
Act of Toleration 1689
The Act of Toleration was an act of the English Parliament , the long title of which is "An Act for Exempting their Majestyes Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties of certaine Lawes".The Act allowed freedom of worship to Nonconformists who had pledged to the...
, Williams published a letter on The Nature and Extent of Intellectual Liberty
Freedom of thought
Freedom of thought is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints....
, 1779, claiming that religious toleration
Religious toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
should be without restriction. It was answered by Manasseh Dawes
Manasseh Dawes
Manasseh Dawes , was a miscellaneous writer.Dawes was a barrister of the Inner Temple. He left the bar and lived 'in a very retired manner' at Clifford's Inn for the last thirty-six years of his life.His chief works are:...
. In the same year, and with the same object, he translated and published Voltaire's Treatise on Toleration, Ignorant Philosopher and Commentary on Beccaria. In 1780 he issued A Plan of Association on Constitutional Principles; and on the formation of county associations for parliamentary reform he published his Letters on Political Liberty (1782). This was translated into French the following year by Jacques Pierre Brissot
Jacques Pierre Brissot
Jacques Pierre Brissot , who assumed the name of de Warville, was a leading member of the Girondist movement during the French Revolution. Some sources give his name as Jean Pierre Brissot.-Biography:...
, then in London conducting the Lyceum
Lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
. Jean-Marie Roland, vicomte de la Platière
Jean-Marie Roland, vicomte de la Platière
Jean-Marie Roland, de la Platière was a French manufacturer in Lyon and became the leader of the Girondist faction in the French Revolution, largely influenced in this direction by his wife, Marie-Jeanne "Manon" Roland de la Platiere...
, a friend of Brissot, visited London in 1784, when Williams made his acquaintance.
Williams's publications at this period include Letters concerning Education 1785; Royal Recollections on a Tour to Cheltenham (anon.), 1788; Lectures on Political Principles 1789; Lectures on Education, 1789; Lessons to a Young Prince (anon.), 1790.
Literary fund
The idea of a 'literary fund' to aid 'distressed talents' was again suggested by Williams in a club of six persons, formed on the discontinuance of his Sunday lectures (1780), and meeting at the Prince of Wales's coffee-house, Conduit Street. Among its original members, besides Williams, were Captain Thomas MorrisThomas Morris
Thomas Morris may refer to:*Thomas Morris , U.S. Representative from New York*Thomas Morris , Senator from Ohio* Thomas John Morris , U.S. federal judge...
, John Gardner
John Gardner
John Champlin Gardner, Jr. was an American novelist, essayist, literary critic and university professor. He is perhaps most noted for his novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf myth from the monster's point of view....
(vicar of Battersea
Battersea
Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...
), and perhaps the printer John Nichols
John Nichols (printer)
John Nichols was an English printer, author and antiquary.-Early life and apprenticeship:He was born in Islington, London to Edward Nichols and Anne Wilmot. On 22 June 1766 he married Anne Cradock daughter of William Cradock...
. Fruitless applications were made after 1783 to William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
(who thought the matter very important), Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox PC , styled The Honourable from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...
, Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
, and Sir Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
. An advertisement was published (October 1786), 'with no material effect'. The death in a debtors' prison (1 April 1787) of Floyer Sydenham
Floyer Sydenham
Floyer Sydenham was an English scholar of Ancient Greek.He was a Fellow and sometime Moderator of Philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford, and later Rector of Esher. He translated some of the Dialogues of Plato into English, and wrote a dissertation on Heraclitus, which failed of being appreciated...
led Williams to press the matter. The club, not being unanimous, was dissolved, and another (of eight members) formed. At its first meeting (spring of 1788) the constitution of the Literary Fund, drawn up by Williams, was adopted, each member subscribing a guinea. An advertisement (10 May 1788) invited further subscriptions. The first general meeting to elect officers was held on Tuesday 18 May 1790 at the Prince of Wales's coffee-house. In the course of twelve years £1,738 was distributed among 105 persons. The society was incorporated 19 May 1818; in 1842 it became the Royal Literary Fund
Royal Literary Fund
The Royal Literary Fund is a benevolent fund set up to help published British writers in financial difficulties. It was founded by Reverend David Williams in 1790 and has received bequests and donations, including royal patronage, ever since...
. By the close of the century it possessed an income exceeding £4,000, half from investments, and half from annual contributions.
Later life
At the instance of Dr. Hooper of Pant-y-Goetre and Morgan of Tredegar, Williams undertook to write a history of MonmouthshireMonmouthshire (historic)
Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....
, and in 1792 visited the county to collect materials. Shortly afterwards Roland
Jean-Marie Roland, vicomte de la Platière
Jean-Marie Roland, de la Platière was a French manufacturer in Lyon and became the leader of the Girondist faction in the French Revolution, largely influenced in this direction by his wife, Marie-Jeanne "Manon" Roland de la Platiere...
, during his second term of office as minister of the interior, invited Williams to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He went over about August 1792, was made a French citizen, and remained till the execution (21 January 1793) of Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
, a measure which he strongly deprecated. While in Paris he published Observations sur la derniere Constitution de la France, 1793. He brought with him, on his return, a letter to William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, from Lebrun
Pierre Henri Hélène Marie Lebrun-Tondu
Pierre-Henri-Hélène-Marie Lebrun-Tondu was a journalist and a French minister, during the French Revolution.-Before the Revolution:...
, minister of war, who wished to make Williams a medium of communication between the two governments; but no notice was taken of it. An engagement previously entered into for completing the continuation of Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
's History of England was cancelled, owing to the political odium incurred by his visit to France. His History of Monmouthshire, 1796, with illustrations drawn and partly engraved by his friend Gardner, and a very modest introduction, was considered a standard work on the subject; unfortunately it has no index.
After the peace of Amiens
Treaty of Amiens
The Treaty of Amiens temporarily ended hostilities between the French Republic and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was signed in the city of Amiens on 25 March 1802 , by Joseph Bonaparte and the Marquess Cornwallis as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace"...
(1802) he again visited France. It was surmised that he had been entrusted with some confidential mission by the English government. Before leaving he had published Claims of Literature, 1802, an authorised account of the Literary Fund. On his return he issued one or two anonymous political tracts, showing, it is said, a diminished confidence in revolutionary methods. His authorship of some anonymous publications is doubtful. On internal evidence he is credited with Egeria, 1803, intended as a first volume of a periodical devoted to political economy. His pecuniary resources failed him.
He had suffered from paralytic attacks, and had a severe stroke in 1811, from which time his faculties declined. He was invited to take up his abode in the house of the Literary Fund, 36 Gerrard Street, Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
, and there he remained till his death, regularly attending the society's meetings. At a special meeting of the general committee, held without Williams's knowledge on 25 July 1815, it was resolved to offer him £50 every six months, as evidence of the committee's 'attachment to the first principles of their society'. Only one installment was paid before his death on 29 June 1816. A second installment was handed to his niece and housekeeper, Mary Watkins. On 6 July he was buried in St. Anne's Church, Soho, where there is a brief inscription to his memory.
His will, dated 16 July 1814, left his papers to his executors, Richard Yates, chaplain of Chelsea Hospital, and Thomas Wittingham; his other property to his niece
and housekeeper, Mary Watkins (died 5 February 1845), who removed from Gerrard Street to Lower Sloane Street, and afterwards to King's Road, Chelsea.
Works
- Treatise on Education (1774)
- A Liturgy on the Universal Principles of Religion and Morality (1776)
- Letters on Political Liberty (1782)
- History of Monmouthshire (1796)