John Williams (1792–1858)

John Williams (1792–1858) was a Welsh churchman, scholar and educator, Archdeacon of Cardigan from 1833, first rector of Edinburgh Academy and warden of Llandovery College.

He was the youngest child of John Williams (1745–1818), vicar of Ystrad-meurig, by Jane, daughter of Lewis Rogers of Gelli, high sheriff of Cardiganshire in 1753, was born at Ystrad-meurig on 11 April 1792. He was educated mainly at his father's celebrated school there, but after three years spent teaching at Chiswick he went for a short time to Ludlow School. He matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford on 30 November 1810, graduating B.A. in 1814, and M.A. in 1838.

Williams was for four years (1814–18) assistant master to Henry Dison Gabell at Winchester College, and for another two years assistant to the brothers Charles and George Richards at Hyde Abbey School nearby. In 1820 Thomas Burgess, then bishop of St David's, offered him the vicarage of Lampeter, hoping that he would carry on the school established there by Eliezer Williams; he accepted, and Lampeter was selected as the home of the divinity school later known as St David's College, Lampeter. The foundation-stone was laid in 1822, but, having clashed with Burgess, Williams was not appointed its principal.

John Gibson Lockhart was friend of Williams from Balliol, and Charles, the second son of Sir Walter Scott, was in 1820 sent to Lampeter as a pupil. He was followed by Villiers Surtees, and William Forbes Mackenzie. In 1824 Scott and Mackenzie's father invited Williams to become headmaster of the Edinburgh Academy that they were setting up. The school opened, with Williams as rector, on 1 October 1824. His pupils there included Archibald Campbell Tait, John Campbell Shairp, William Young Sellar, James Clerk Maxwell, William Edmondstoune Aytoun, Frederick William Robertson, Alexander Forbes, and Charles Frederick Mackenzie.

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