David Williams (Q60651)

David Williams, writer and political pamphleteer, was born in the parish of Eglwysilan and received his early education at a local school run by his namesake, David Williams, Independent minister (1709-1784). From 1753 to 1757 Williams attended Carmarthen Academy, where he absorbed a number of unorthodox ideas. He served as Nonconformist minister at Frome (1759-1761), Exeter (1761-1769) and Highgate, Middlesex (1769-1773) but subsequently left the ministry because the salary was too deficient to maintain the lifestyle he desired. In 1773 Williams opened an expensive boarding school in Chelsea but gave up the project following the death of his wife in 1774. In that same year he had completed his Treatise on Education. With writer, natural philosopher and politician Benjamin Franklin, Williams formed the 'Thirteen Club', a gathering of deists for whom Williams wrote his Liturgy on the Universal Principles of Religion and Morality (London, 1776). Williams's political radicalism emerged in his publication Letters on Political Liberty (London, 1782), which promoted a programme of social reform aimed in defence of the American colonists. The book was translated into French and Williams subsequently became famous in France, where he spent some time extolling his social and political views. His greatest work in terms of volume was his History of Monmouthshire (London, 1796) and his most marked achievement probably the formation of the Royal Literary Fund in 1780, which aimed to support needy writers. Williams spent the last years of his life at the Fund's headquarters in Gerrard Square, Soho, and it was there that he died.