the name, ‘Grecian Williams,’ by which he is familiarly known. An account of his travels, in two octavo volumes, appeared in 1820. Written in the form of letters, and dedicated to John Thomson (1778–1840) [q. v.] of Duddingston, the avowed intention of the work was not to enter into disquisitions upon archæology and history, but to describe the countries, scenery, and peoples as they appeared to him. The illustrations were engraved by Lizars from drawings by the author. In 1822 Williams held an exhibition of watercolours, also the result of his tour, which attracted much attention and was greatly applauded by the critics of the day. Depicting as they did the splendid ruins and famous scenes of Greek history, they fell in with the taste of the time, and the catalogue teems with quotations from the classics and the great English poets. Between 1827 and 1829 his ‘Select Views in Greece’ appeared in numbers, each containing six plates. Although he painted a few oil pictures, his principal and more characteristic work was executed in watercolour, which he handled in broad washes of transparent colour over a carefully drawn pencil design. In the National Gallery of Scotland he is represented by between twenty and thirty typical examples, and in the historical collection at South Kensington by five drawings, three of which are dated before 1807, and represent his earlier style. Williams was an original member of the Associated Artists in Watercolour (1808), and an associate of the Royal Institution, Edinburgh; but towards the end of his life he took a great interest in the proposed amalgamation of the Scottish Academy and the artist associates of the institution, an arrangement which was completed a month after his death.
Shortly after his return from the East he married Miss Miller of Garnock, a wealthy lady of good family, and moved in the best Edinburgh society, where he was exceedingly popular. Professor Wilson in the ‘Noctes Ambrosianæ’ makes the ‘Shepherd’ say of Williams: ‘As for the man himsel’, I like to look on him, for he's gotten a gran' bald phrenological head, the face o' him 's at ance good-natured and intelligent; and o' a' the painters I ken, his mainners seems to be the maist the mainners o' a gentleman and a man o' the world;’ and Lord Cockburn speaks of him as warm-hearted and honourable, of singular modesty and almost feminine gentleness. He died on 23 June 1829.
A portrait of Williams by W. J. Thomson, R.S.A., was engraved by C. Thomson and published in 1827, and that by Sir Henry Raeburn is now in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
[Private information; Edinburgh Annual Register, 1816; Lockhart's Peter's Letters, 1819; Edinburgh Magazine, 1822; Noctes Ambrosianæ, 1827; Lord Cockburn's Memorials, 1854; Henley's A Century of Artists, Glasgow, 1889; Redgrave's and Bryan's Dictionaries; Catalogues Edinburgh Exhibitions, 1808–16, Scottish National Gallery, South Kensington Museum.]
WILLIAMS, ISAAC (1802–1865), poet and theologian, third son, with three brothers, of Isaac Lloyd Williams (1771–1846), chancery barrister of Lincoln's Inn, who married Anne, elder daughter and coheiress of Matthew Davies of Cwmcynfelyn, near Aberystwith, Cardiganshire, was born there on 12 Dec. 1802. The family lived in Southampton Street, Bloomsbury Square, London, and Williams's early years were spent under the instruction of the Rev. Mr. Polehampton of Eton and King's College. When Polehampton moved to Worplesdon in Surrey his pupils followed him. From 1817 Williams was at Harrow, where he became conspicuous for his skill in Latin verse, and on 7 June 1821 he matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford. From 3 June 1822 to 1831 he held a scholarship on that foundation, but from the first he lived much among the men at Oriel College. In the summer of 1822 he was introduced to John Keble at Aberystwith, but this acquaintanceship did not ripen into a close intimacy until after Williams had gained in 1823, with a poem of ‘much originality and power,’ the chancellor's prize for Latin verse, the subject being ‘Ars Geologica.’ In that year and in 1824 he went to read with Keble at Southrop, near Fairford, and among his companions were Richard Hurrell Froude and Robert Isaac Wilberforce. He accompanied Froude to his father's rectory at Dartington, near Totnes, Devonshire, in 1825, and made the acquaintance of the family of Champernowne of Dartington House. The brothers John and Thomas Keble exercised great influence over him, and their intercourse shaped his after-life.
Williams, in the hope of getting a ‘double first,’ read very hard in classics and mathematics, labouring severely over the latter. A serious illness threatened his life, and, as his studies were peremptorily stopped by Dr. Abernethy, he was obliged to content himself with a pass-degree. He graduated B.A. on 25 May 1826, and proceeded M.A. in 1831 and B.D. in 1839. In December 1829 he was ordained deacon by Christopher Bethell [q. v.], then bishop of Gloucester, his
