Hymn Writers of the Church

Williams, William, has been called "the Watts of Wales." He was born in 1717. His "awakening" was due to an open-air sermon by the famous Welsh preacher, Howell Harris. Williams received deacon's orders in the Established Church, but subsequently became a preacher in the Calvinistic Methodist connection. As an evangelistic preacher he was popular and successful, abounding in labors and exercising a wide influence among the Welsh. He died January 11, 1791.