Dr. Williams' Library, Non-Conformist Collection: Difference between revisions

Dr. Daniel Williams was born about 1643 at or in '''[[Wrexham]]''', [[Denbighshire]] in [[Wales]]. His family was probably well connected. The '''English Civil War''' had just begun. Their sympathies were with Parliament and Presbytery. There was a Puritan school in the area and Quakers visited the neighborhood. When he was about 20 years of age, he became a Presbyterian preacher. The difficulties of the time took Daniel to Ireland. He became a domestic chaplain to the Countess of Meath. He preached for a time in '''Drogheda''' and in '''Dublin'''. In 1675, he married the widowed sister of the Countess of Meath. In 1687, he went to London and soon became a leader of the Nonconformists there. By the 1690s he was in trouble, and his enemies charged him with immorality. He was cleared by a formidable jury of 60 London ministers. Daniel’s wife died in 1698 and three years later he married another widow, Jane Barkstead. He continued to support Nonconformist causes. In 1709, as his health began to fail, he was made a D.D. by Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities. He died on 16 January 1716, in his early 70s. There is lengthy biographical sketch of him in the ''Dictionary of National Biography'', Volume 61.<ref>David L. Wykes, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29491 ‘Williams, Daniel (c.1643–1716)’], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009 , [Daniel Williams (c.1643–1716): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29491  accessed 26 June 2012]</ref>