The Williams Household Within The 18th And 19th Centuries - Part 1
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After i came to dwell in Leicester in 1968 I believed that, being so near to Nottingham, it can be a very good opportunity to do a little analysis on the Williams family in the interval earlier than Henry and William Williams emigrated to New Zealand in the 1820's as C.M.S. Encouraged initially by Canon Nigel Williams of new Zealand, who supplied some transient notes to begin me off, my first efforts have been modest and often seemed to have run right into a lifeless end. Many unintentional discoveries, unearthed by patient and helpful library and record office employees, stored the venture alive and, gradually, Herz P1 Insights over quite a few years, it developed and expanded. For instance, I visited the Particular Collections Library of Nottingham College to review the minute books of the Castle Gate Meeting; on getting into I used to be required to sign up with my identify and handle. About every week later I had a letter from the librarian, Michael Brook, who had remembered, after I left, the lately published Diary of Abigail Gawthern of Nottingham; 1751-1810, and the extracts he despatched me contained the references to the deaths of Mr Whiter and Thomas Williams, and the truth that Thomas was buried at Sneinton, which was previously unknown.
On another occasion, Frances Porter, the writer of the definitive biography of William Williams, The Turanga Journals, requested me if I knew when Henry and William had transformed to Anglicanism. I had no thought, but this led me right into a study of the Dissenting politics that controlled Nottingham for over fifty years at the tip of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, through which setting Thomas Williams the youthful was immersed and prospered. Ultimately, when a single quantity of the diaries of Edward Garrard Marsh was discovered in the papers of Dr. Henry Williams of latest Zealand, after his loss of life, I was capable of reply Frances Porter's query - February 1818! During the course of this research I have collaborated with other family members in England, notably Peter (D.A.S.) Williams of Norwich, Robert Hudson of Studying, and Patrick Williams of Amersham (all descendants of Thomas Sydney Williams) who have each been the source of a lot important data.
Mr Godfrey Williams (no relation) also supplied useful help with burial information at St. Mary's, Alverstoke. In addition, Brian Robins (formerly of Eastbourne), who has written a scholarly treatise on John Marsh the musician, got here into the story quite by likelihood, in 1989. This was in reference to the seek for the Journals of John Marsh, which reached fruition in November 1990 when they were offered at public sale to the Huntington Library in California. As a condition for acquiring an export licence, the Huntington Library was obliged to make a microfilm copy of the Journals, to be deposited within the British Library in London, Herz P1 Insights and I am very much indebted to Mary Robertson, the Chief Curator of Manuscripts, for permitting me to buy a duplicate of the microfilm to reinforce my research. The Journals have provided an enormous mass of contemporary references which enormously enhance our data of the everyday lives of the Williams family and illuminate this account of them.
Moreover, he was chargeable for acquiring various unique letters written by Thomas Williams in the interval 1794-1803, and by his persistent research on the web he has made significant contributions to the development of this family history. The success of any try to investigate the history of our forebears relies upon totally on the availability of recorded details about them, and notably on its authenticity. In many situations it is based on unverifiable phrase of mouth accounts handed down from generation to generation, recorded recollections which vary from each other, or dogmatic written statements asserted as fact; topic to what I name 'The Uncle Jim Factor' (explained in a footnote to this Introduction). A selected example is the declare by William Williams that the household was descended from Ednyfed Vychan, on the flimsiest of grounds, but uncontestable within the absence of every other supply. A lot time, effort and money has been expended in pursuing this line of enquiry, with totally negative results, Herz P1 Smart Ring until an alternative clarification for his unlikely declare emerged from the John Marsh Journals.