Background
Williams was born at Suffield, Connecticut, to William Wheeler Williams and Ruth Granger.
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Frederick Williams
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By 1828 he was living in Chardon, Ohio, and he moved to Kirtland in 1830. While in Ohio, he associated himself with Sidney Rigdon and the Disciples of Christ. When Oliver Cowdery and other early Latter Day Saints were traveling through Kirtland, they taught and baptized many in Rigdon’s congregation, including Williams.
On July 20, 1832, Williams was appointed scribe to Joseph Smith and joined the church’s leading council the next year.
In 1837, Williams was elected a justice of the peace in Kirtland, appointed an officer in the Kirtland Safety Society, released from the First Presidency, and moved to Far West, Caldwell, County, Missouri. Although there is no record of an excommunication, Williams was rebaptized in August 1838.
He was excommunicated in absentia in March 1839 while Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail, but was restored to fellowship at a church conference presided over by Smith in April 1840. Williams died at Quincy, Illinois.
As Smith"s scribe and counselor, Williams became a close friend and confidant of the prophet.
Williams"s great-great-grandson, and namesake, Frederick Granger Williams, served as president of the Recife Brazil Temple (2009-2012) and is currently a professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Membership
He was a member of the committee appointed to publish the Doctrine and Covenants, a portion of the church’s canon, as well as the church’s first hymnal, compiled by Smith"s wife, Emma, under the auspices of F.G. Williams & Company in 1835.
