The Williams Family in the 18th and 19th Centuries - Part 1

When i got here to stay in Leicester in 1968 I believed that, being so close to to Nottingham, it would be a superb alternative to perform a little research on the Williams household within the interval before Henry and William Williams emigrated to New Zealand within the 1820's as C.M.S. Encouraged initially by Canon Nigel Williams of latest Zealand, who supplied some temporary notes to begin me off, my first efforts were modest and often appeared to have run right into a dead finish. Many unintentional discoveries, unearthed by affected person and useful library and record workplace staff, kept the venture alive and, progressively, over quite a lot of years, Herz P1 Wellness it developed and expanded. For example, I visited the Special Collections Library of Nottingham College to study the minute books of the Castle Gate Assembly; on getting into I was required to check in with my name and handle. About per week later I had a letter from the librarian, Michael Brook, who had remembered, after I left, the just lately revealed Diary of Abigail Gawthern of Nottingham; 1751-1810, and the extracts he sent me contained the references to the deaths of Mr Whiter and Thomas Williams, and the truth that Thomas was buried at Sneinton, which was previously unknown.

On another occasion, Frances Porter, the creator of the definitive biography of William Williams, The Turanga Journals, asked me if I knew when Henry and William had converted to Anglicanism. I had no thought, however this led me into a research of the Dissenting politics that controlled Nottingham for over fifty years at the top of the 18th and the start of the 19th centuries, by which surroundings Thomas Williams the younger was immersed and prospered. Finally, when a single quantity of the diaries of Edward Garrard Marsh was discovered in the papers of Dr. Henry Williams of recent Zealand, after his death, I used to be in a position to answer Frances Porter's question - February 1818! In the course of the course of this research I've collaborated with different members of the family in England, notably Peter (D.A.S.) Williams of Norwich, Robert Hudson of Reading, and Patrick Williams of Amersham (all descendants of Thomas Sydney Williams) who've every been the source of much necessary information.

Mr Godfrey Williams (no relation) additionally offered priceless help with burial information at St. Mary's, Alverstoke. In addition, Brian Robins (formerly of Eastbourne), who has written a scholarly treatise on John Marsh the musician, came into the story quite by chance, in 1989. This was in reference to the search for the Journals of John Marsh, which reached fruition in November 1990 once they had been offered at public sale to the Huntington Library in California. As a condition for acquiring an export licence, the Huntington Library was obliged to make a microfilm copy of the Journals, to be deposited within the British Library in London, and I am very a lot indebted to Mary Robertson, the Chief Curator of Manuscripts, for permitting me to purchase a duplicate of the microfilm to augment my studies. The Journals have supplied a huge mass of contemporary references which vastly enhance our knowledge of the day after day lives of the Williams household and illuminate this account of them.

Furthermore, he was chargeable for buying a number of unique letters written by Thomas Williams in the interval 1794-1803, and by his persistent research on the web he has made significant contributions to the development of this family history. The success of any attempt to investigate the historical past of our forebears relies upon totally on the availability of recorded information about them, and significantly on its authenticity. In many instances it is based on unverifiable word of mouth accounts handed down from generation to technology, Herz P1 Wellness recorded recollections which differ from each other, or dogmatic written statements asserted as truth; subject to what I call 'The Uncle Jim Issue' (explained in a footnote to this Introduction). A selected example is the declare by William Williams that the household was descended from Ednyfed Vychan, on the flimsiest of grounds, however uncontestable within the absence of another supply. A lot time, effort and money has been expended in pursuing this line of enquiry, with totally damaging outcomes, until an alternate clarification for his unlikely claim emerged from the John Marsh Journals.