to the study of Welsh literature. Among the manuscripts written by him are Mostyn MS. 113 (a book of pedigrees written about 1572), Hengwrt MS. 204 (a copy of the Welsh laws, dated 1594), and Mostyn MS. 204 (a collection of proverbs dated 1620). But the great work of his life was the compilation of a Latin Welsh dictionary; the accumulation of the material took him, he says, fifty years, and the actual writing four, during which time ‘I was so instant that often when I came from the book I did not know many a time what day of the week it was and so lost my practice’ (Cambrian Reg. i. 159). The manuscript, in three quarto volumes, is now at Peniarth (Hengwrt MS. 60). It was sent by Sir John Wynn in 1623, Williams having died in the meantime, to Dr. John Davies [q.v.] , who made it the basis of the second part of the dictionary of 1632. In his preface Davies refers to the assistance he derived from Williams's manuscript, but gives the impression that much revision had been necessary to make it presentable; the opinion of those who have examined Williams's work is, on the other hand, that Davies's is little more than an index to it (Williams, Eminent Welshmen, p. 537; Silvan Evans in Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry, p. 113).
[The biographical facts are from the additions of Bishop Humphreys to Wood's Athenæ. See also Williams's preface to the dictionary, as printed in the London ‘Greal’ (pp. 61–7); Hist. of the Gwydir Family (p. 87 of 1878 ed.), and the catalogues of the Hengwrt and Mostyn MSS.]
WILLIAMS, THOMAS (1668–1740), Roman catholic prelate, born in 1668 of an ancient Welsh family, resident at the Benedictine priory of Monmouth, made his profession as a friar of the order of St. Dominic at Bornhem, near Antwerp, on 5 Dec. 1686, taking in religion the name of Dominic. He finished his studies at Naples. Having been ordained priest in 1692, he was instituted rector of the Dominican College of St. Thomas Aquinas at Louvain in 1697, and in subsequent years he was appointed provincial of the English Dominican province. On 18 May 1724 he was installed prior of Bornhem. By papal brief of 22 Dec. 1725 he was made bishop of Tiberiopolis, under the archbishop of Hieropolis, in Phrygia Magna, in partibus infidelium, to which see he was consecrated at Rome (30 Dec.), in the chapel of the apostolic palace, by Benedict XIII himself. On 7 June 1727 he was nominated vicar-apostolic of the northern district of England. He resided mostly at Huddleston Hall (belonging to Sir Edward Gascoigne), near Hazlewood, Yorkshire. A letter of the internuncio at Brussels, dated 24 July 1733, announced to propaganda that Williams was in serious peril. The bishop was ‘actually obliged to fly to the most deserted and remote places to escape prison and torture, as the pseudo-archbishop of York [Lancelot Blackburne] had issued a mandate for his capture, on account of his having made a conversion (which caused great noise) of a protestant minister who, instructed by Bishop Williams, nobly resigned his rich prebend, and publicly declared himself a catholic.’ Williams died at Huddleston Hall on 3 April 1740 (O.S.), and was buried in the catholic church of Hazlewood, where his tombstone, with a Latin epitaph, is still in a state of perfect preservation.
The oft-repeated statement that he composed ‘Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire Ecclésiastique du XVIIIe Siècle’ is without foundation.
[Dr. Thomas Worthington wrote in Latin Memoirs of Bishop Williams (1741, 8vo, pp. 65). A copy was in the library of the late Bishop Goss (Gibson's ‘Lydiate Hall,’ p. 203). This manuscript was published in A Consecrated Life by the Rev. Raymond Palmer, O.P., which appeared in Merry England (1887–8, x. 411, 480). See also Brady's Episcopal Succession, iii. 253, 254, 258; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vii. 243, 8th ser. x. 456, xi. 53; Oliver's Cornwall, p. 467; Palmer's Obituary Notices, p. 11.]
WILLIAMS, Sir THOMAS (1762?–1841), admiral, son of Captain William Williams (d. 1778) of the navy, was in 1768 entered on the books of the Peggy sloop, commanded by his father, with whom he continued serving, nominally or really, in different ships on the Newfoundland and North America stations. In June 1776 he was with his father in the Active in the disastrous attack on Sullivan's Island [see Parker, Sir Peter, 1721–1811]. In 1777 he was moved into the Prince of Wales, flagship of Rear-admiral Samuel Barrington [q. v.], with whom he was in the engagements at St. Lucia (15 Dec. 1778) and Grenada (6 July 1779). On 8 Dec. 1779 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the America, one of the ships with Sir George Brydges (Lord) Rodney [q. v.], when he captured the Caraccas convoy on 8 Jan. 1780; and, being sent home with the prizes, went out to North America with Vice-admiral Marriot Arbuthnot [q. v.], and took part in the action of 16 March 1781. In May Williams was appointed first lieutenant of the Assurance,
