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George Williams (1814–1878) was an English cleric, academic and antiquary.


Early life

Born at
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
on 4 April 1814, Williams was son of Edward Williams, a bookseller and publisher there. He was educated on the foundation at
Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
, in the first form of the lower school in 1820, and was admitted scholar on 15 September 1829. On 14 July 1832 he was admitted to a scholarship at
King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
, and was a fellow from 14 July 1835 to 1870. He graduated B.A. 1837, M.A. 1840, was admitted ''ad eundem'' at Oxford on 10 June 1847, and proceeded B.D. at Cambridge in 1849.


Chaplain abroad

In 1837 Williams was ordained, and on 22 September 1838 he was appointed by Eton College to the perpetual curacies of
Great Bricet Great Bricett is a village and civil parish in the county of Suffolk, England. At the 2011 census the population was recorded as 1,530. It has strong links with the neighbouring RAF Wattisham which partly falls within the parish boundary. Fun fact ...
and Wattisham, which he held until Michaelmas 1840. He was appointed by Archbishop
William Howley William Howley (12 February 1766 – 11 February 1848) was a clergyman in the Church of England. He served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1828 to 1848. Early life, education, and interests Howley was born in 1766 at Ropley, Hampshire, whe ...
to accompany Bishop Michael Alexander as chaplain to Jerusalem, and was there from 1841 to May 1843. He then served as chaplain at St. Petersburg (1844–5). He was left with the project bringing together the Greek and Anglican churches.


Cambridge and Rathfarnham

In 1846 Williams took up residence at Cambridge. He filled the post of Dean of Arts at King's until 1848, and that of Dean of Divinity from 1848 to 1850. In 1848 he was also nominated as Chaplain at Stockholm by the
Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
, Charles James Blomfield, but was unable to take up the post owing to his duties at King's. In 1850 Williams was appointed warden of St. Columba's College at
Rathfarnham Rathfarnham () is a Southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is within the administrative areas of both Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council a ...
, near Dublin. The college was mainly kept in existence by the support of Lord John George de la Poer Beresford, the
archbishop of Armagh In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdio ...
. When, in 1853, Williams joined with George Anthony Denison, Edward Pusey and others in protests against the actions of Samuel Gobat, the then bishop of Jerusalem, for attempting to convert adherents of the Greek Orthodox church, the archbishop called on him to resign. An angry correspondence then ensued, and the archbishop broke his connection with the college but Williams retained his post until 1856. From 1854 to 1857 Williams was vice-provost of King's College, Cambridge, and in 1858 he acted as pro-proctor to the university. He was unpopular, and his nomination as proctor was rejected by the university senate on 1 October 1860, the nonplacets being 29 and the placets 26.


Later life

In 1858 Williams took temporary charge of Cumbrae College in
Buteshire The County of Bute ( gd, Siorrachd Bhòid), also known as Buteshire, is a historic county and registration county of Scotland. The county comprises a number of islands in the Firth of Clyde, between the counties of Argyll and Ayrshire, the p ...
, and was appointed an honorary canon of there in 1864. The college had been founded in 1849 by
George Boyle, 6th Earl of Glasgow George Frederick Boyle, 6th Earl of Glasgow (9 October 1825 – 23 April 1890), was a Scottish nobleman. He was the son of George Boyle, 4th Earl of Glasgow, and Julia Sinclair, daughter of Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet. In February 1847, Boy ...
, a
Tractarian The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...
layman. Williams made a long journey in Russia in 1860, with a view to spreading knowledge of the benefits available for foreign communities at English universities; and he printed in that year a French tract on the project to establish at Cambridge hostels for visitors of the Greek or Armenian churches, but nothing came from the scheme. After a tour in the East with the
Marquess of Bute Marquess of the County of Bute, shortened in general usage to Marquess of Bute, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1796 for John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute, John Stuart, 4th Earl of Bute. Family history John Stuart ...
, and several years in residence at Cambridge, Williams was presented by his college on 9 February 1869 to the vicarage of Ringwood in Hampshire. He was Lady Margaret preacher at Cambridge in 1870, and was created honorary canon of Winchester Cathedral in 1874.


Death

One of the last deeds of Williams's life was to send his signature to the clerical declaration against war with Russia. He died suddenly at the Church Farm, Harbridge, one of the chapelries of Ringwood, on 26 January 1878, and was buried at Harbridge on 1 Feb. A reredos was erected in Ringwood church as a memorial to his memory, a prize for distinction in the theological Tripos was founded at Cambridge, and a bronze tablet, with a portrait-bust in relief, designed by W. Burgess, R.A., was placed in
King's College chapel King's College Chapel is the chapel of King's College in the University of Cambridge. It is considered one of the finest examples of late Perpendicular Gothic English architecture and features the world's largest fan vault. The Chapel was bui ...
.


Works

Williams contributed to the ''
Christian Remembrancer The ''Christian Remembrancer'' was a high-church periodical which ran from 1819 to 1868. Joshua Watson and Henry Handley Norris, the owners of the ''British Critic'', encouraged Frederick Iremonger to start the ''Christian Remembrancer'' as a mo ...
'', ''
The Ecclesiologist The Cambridge Camden Society, known from 1845 (when it moved to London) as the Ecclesiological Society,Histor ...
'', and ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. He brought out in 1845 ''The Holy City'' with illustrations from sketches by William Frederick Witts. A second edition included an ''Architectural History of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre'' by Robert Willis (1849, 2 vols.). For this work he received from the King of Prussia a medal for literary merit. Williams invited Ermete Pierotti to Cambridge, assisted him in preparing his work of ''Jerusalem Explored'' for the press, and revised it during printing. Pierotti was in fact a cashiered officer of the
Sardinian Army The Royal Sardinian Army (also the Sardinian Army, the Royal Sardo-Piedmontese Army, the Savoyard Army, or the Piedmontese Army) was the army of the Duchy of Savoy and then of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was active from 1416 until it became th ...
, who had moved into archaeology in the 1850s. He was accused by James Fergusson and others of plagiarism, and Williams defended him in ''Dr. Pierotti and his Assailants'', 1864. Pierotti, however, was soon discredited as a scholar. Williams published in 1846 a collection of ''Sermons preached at Jerusalem in 1842 and 1843'', and supplied the introduction to
William Wey William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
's ''Itineraries to Jerusalem and Compostella'', printed for the
Roxburghe Club The Roxburghe Club is a bibliophilic and publishing society based in the United Kingdom. Origins The spur to the Club's foundation was the sale of the enormous library of the Duke of Roxburghe (who had died in 1804), which took place over 46 days ...
in 1857. A description of ''The Holy Land: Travels in Palestine from Dan to Beersheba'', announced in 1849, never appeared. Williams edited in 1868 ''The Orthodox Church of the East in the Eighteenth Century'', correspondence between the eastern patriarchs and the
nonjuring bishop The Nonjuring schism refers to a split in the established churches of England, Scotland and Ireland, following the deposition and exile of James II and VII in the 1688 Glorious Revolution. As a condition of office, clergy were required to swear ...
s on the reunion of the Greek church and the Anglican communion; and he edited, with introduction and an appendix of illustrative documents, for the Rolls Series, in 1872, two volumes of official correspondence of
Thomas Beckington Thomas Beckington (also spelt Beckynton; c. 139014 January 1465) was the Bishop of Bath and Wells and King's Secretary in medieval England under Henry VI. Life Beckington was born at Beckington in Somerset, and was educated at Winchester an ...
. He was one of the two cataloguers of ''Monastic Cartularies'' for the catalogue of manuscripts at the Cambridge University Library, vol. iv., and he described the Baumgartner Papers in vol. v. Other writings included articles in William Smith's dictionaries of Greek and Roman geography, Christian biography, and Christian antiquities.


Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, George 1814 births 1878 deaths 19th-century English Anglican priests Fellows of King's College, Cambridge English antiquarians