burton), containing a project of church reform, drew the attention of John Jebb (1736–1786) [q. v.] With the co-operation of John Lee (1733–1793) [q. v.] 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’ (anon., 1773, 8vo; 2nd edit., with appendix, 1774, 8vo)—were so deistic in tone as to put an end to the scheme.
A taste for the drama led to his acquaintance with David Garrick [q. v.], whom he met at the house of a hostess of ‘the wits of the time.’ With this lady he visited Henry Mossop [q. v.], 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 (ib. p. 5). Three months later (pref.) he published his keen but truculent ‘Letter to David Garrick’ (anon.), 1772, 8vo. According to a note by John Philip Kemble [q. v.] 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 Morris, who reprints the ‘Letter’ with a wrong date (1770), says it was withdrawn from sale (ib. pp. 6, 25). In the ‘Private Correspondence of David Garrick,’ 1831, i. 487, is a letter (2 Oct. 1772), signed ‘D. W—s,’ hinting that the published ‘Letter’ was by ‘a young man who is making himself known as 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’ (cf. Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vi. 577). James Boaden [q. v.], the editor of the ‘Correspondence,’ calls the writer (evidently Williams himself) an ‘arrogant boy’ (the original letter is in the Forster Collection at South Kensington). On Mossop's death (18 Nov. 1773) Williams wrote to Garrick, and received a touching reply (the letter, dated ‘Adelphi, 1773,’ is printed in the ‘Cardiff Weekly Mail,’ ut sup., from the original among Williams's papers in the possession of Mr. Joseph Evans, the Bank, Caerphilly). A story told by Fitzgerald (Life of Garrick, 1868, ii. 354) to the effect that Williams brought to the Haymarket ‘some years after’ a farce too coarse for representation may safely be neglected (cf. C. F. T[agart] in Athenæum, 16 May 1868, p. 704).
In 1773 Williams took a house in Lawrence Street, Chelsea, 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], 8vo. His educational ideas, founded on those of John Amos Comenius (1592–1671), he embodied in his ‘Treatise on Education,’ 1774, 8vo. Book-learning he subordinated to scientific training based on a first-hand knowledge of actual 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 (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’ (Annual Biography, ut sup. p. 26). He went to Buxton, according to ‘Orpheus, Priest of Nature,’ 1781, p. 7. 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 (Lectures on Education, 1789, iii. 24). Franklin joined a small club formed at Chelsea by Williams, Thomas Bentley (1731–1780) [q. v.], and James Stuart (1713–1788) [q. v.], known as ‘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 (Morris, p. 12), and was eventually published as ‘A Liturgy on the Universal Principles of Religion and Morality,’ 1776, 8vo. It does not contain his reduction of the creed to one article, ‘I believe in God. Amen.’ It was translated into German by Schoenemann, Leipzig, 1784.
On 7 April 1776 (see advertisement in Morning Post, 2 Nov. 1776) Williams opened for morning service a vacant chapel in Margaret Street, 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’ (Annual Biography, ut sup. p. 26) who seem to have been persons of distinction. The opening lecture was published. Copies of
