​William Williams was born at Cefn-coed, Llanfair-ar-y-bryn, Carmarthenshire in 1717, the son of John and Dorothy Williams.  He entered Llwyn-llwyd Academy with the intention of becoming a doctor.

 

Travelling home one day from there he stopped in Talgarth, and was drawn to listen to Howell Harris preaching in the churchyard.  The message he heard resulted in him stepping out of the lifeless religion to which he was accustomed into a vibrant relationship with God through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. As a result of this experience he abandoned his medical plans, and became an Anglican curate.

 

However the Church was unwilling to ordain him because of his allegiance to the new movement nick-named ‘Methodists’ through which he had found a meaningful faith.​This movement, which began in Wales in 1737, was not a denomination then, but new Christians whose conversion experience gave them a hunger to grow in their faith and experience of God.  

 

The leaders, Daniel Rowlands, Llangeitho and Howell Harris, Trefeca encouraged them to form ‘societies’.  These were groups of new believers who met weekly to methodically study the Bible and share their individual experience of God’s dealings with them. They were encouraged to confess and turn from their sins and failures in order to develop a closer relationship with a holy God.

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William Williams’ heart was to foster this experiential knowledge of God.  He settled at Pantycelyn Farm near Llandovery which he had inherited from his mother. From there he spent many years travelling throughout Wales teaching and encouraging the societies and training up new leaders for the expanding work.

 

His poetic skill provided hymns which succinctly expressed the wonder of the Christian faith and a personal transforming Christian experience.  These hymns probably grew out of the need to instil biblical truth into the hearts of followers with no Bible of their own.

 

They provided a vehicle for these Christians to praise God in their mother tongue for their new found hope and joy. William Williams’ hymns became the voice not only of the 18th century Welsh revival which before long had impacted the whole nation, but have remained as eloquent expressions of the Christian experience ever since.