Background
Williams, John was born on August 30, 1817 in Old Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Ephriam and Emily (Trowbridge) Williams.
Williams, John was born on August 30, 1817 in Old Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Ephriam and Emily (Trowbridge) Williams.
He was educated at Deerfield Academy, Harvard and at Trinity College, Hartford, where he graduated in 1835.
He was ordained deacon in 1838 and ordained priest in 1841. Williams held the rectorship of Saint George"s Church, Schenectady, New York, from 1842 to 1848, after which he became president of Trinity College, and at the same time professor of history and literature. In 1851 he was elected Assistant He was the 53rd bishop in the ECUSA, and was consecrated by Bishops Thomas Church Brownell, John Henry Hopkins, and William Heathcote DeLancey.
On the death of Bishop Brownell, in 1865, Williams succeeded him in the sole charge of the diocese.
At the same time, from 1854 on, he held the office of dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Middletown, and was its principal instructor in Church history and theology. He succeeded Alfred Lee, of Delaware, in 1887, as presiding Bishop, and earned the reputation of a wise conservative leader in ecclesiastical affairs