Thomas Williams of Llanidan
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The Right Honourable Thomas Williams |
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| Member of Parliament for Great Marlow |
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In office 1790–1802 |
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| Preceded by |
William Clayton Thomas Rich |
| Succeeded by |
Pascoe Grenfell Owen Williams |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 13 May 1737 |
| Died | 30 November 1802 (aged 65) |
Thomas Williams (13 May 1737 – 30 November 1802) was a Welsh industrialist and Member of Parliament. At the time of his death, he was the richest man in Wales.
Thomas Williams was born in Llanidan, Anglesey, the son of Owen Williams of Cefn Coch in Llansadwrn.
In the 18th century, there was a significant shortage of food for labouring people. Williams, known to his Welsh speaking workmen as Twm Chwarae Teg ("Tom Fairplay"), once complained to the magistrate at Llanidan that the villagers on Anglesey raided his fields and stole the turnips intended for his cattle and used them to feed their families. His business rival, Matthew Boulton, called Williams the "copper king" – "the despotick sovereign of the copper trade". To his friend and agent he said, "Let me advise you to be extremely cautious in your dealings with Williams". He spoke of Williams as "a perfect tyrant and not over tenacious of his word and will screw damned hard when he has got anybody in his vice". Of the Cornish producers, Boulton said "they would not have submitted to be kicked and piss'd on by me as they have been by them" (Williams and his partner Wilkinson).
Williams' tenacity as a lawyer was very evident when acting for the Hughes family of Llysdulas who were in an acrimonious dispute with Sir Nicholas Bayly of Plas Newydd concerning the Parys Mountain copper mine. This dispute, which ran for over nine years, involved the interpretation of that very unsatisfactory testamentary device called a moiety. At one stage the dispute involved four years of expensive litigation in the Chancery court with the Attorney General and the Solicitor General acting for opposing sides and was not finally settled until 1778. In that year Sir Nicholas leased his own copper mine to a London banker John Dawes (a secret associate of Williams) for 21 years.
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