The Revd Dr Daniel
Williams
The Revd. Dr. Williams
(1643-1711), was a formidable non-conformist preacher who had a major influence
on religious dissenters throughout the Kingdom. He acquired great wealth through
marriages and inheritances, which included the Beckingham Hall estate at
Tolleshunt Major, which enabled him to establish trusts to continue his
influence long after his death and right up until the present day. In his will
he left a substantial trust to the New England
Company, which was, and still is, a missionary society in North America. One of
its founders and the first Governor of the society was John Winthrop, a
life-long friend of Goldhanger Rector the Revd. Edward Howes.
Beckingham Hall in 1630 Beckingham Hall Gatehouse in 1830 .
Until recently Beckingham Hall farm was
in the possession of the New England Company's trustees. Under his will
for 2000 years £60 annually from the income of this estate was to be spent in
employing two itinerant preachers in the West Indies and "for the good of
what pagans and blacks lie neglected there". The remainder was to be paid
to Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, or "such as are usually imployed
to manage the blessed work of converting the poor Indians there, to promote
which I design this part of my gift."
Dr. Williams also left funds to set up a research library in London for English Protestant nonconformity to be called the Dr Williams Library, which is still located at University Hall, Gordon Square, London. He also established a trust for 2000 years for religious and educational purposes. A full biography of Dr Williams is available in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biographies at… www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29491
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The New England Company
the
following are short extracts from a booklet entitled:
The New England
Company – A Short Note and History
published in 1991
The New England Company is an
ancient missionary society — the first to be established in England since the
Reformation - set up in 1649 to spread the Gospel among the North American
Indians, and, since 1745, among the people of the West Indies. Its North
American mission was at first to the Indians in New England, mainly in
Massachusetts but also in Connecticut and Rhode Island. After the American War
of Independence in 1775 the Company transferred its work to the native Indians
in Canada, some of whom had migrated there with the loyalists. In time it
enlarged its sphere of operations in Canada. The Company's mission work in the
West Indies started effectively only in the early nineteenth century.
The term "Company" can
be misleading. "Company" — a translation of the Mediaeval Latin
"Societas" — was the term used in the 16th and 17th centuries for any
corporation, charitable or trading for profit. The New England Company is a
society that does not work for profit but uses its income entirely for its
charitable purpose of spreading the Gospel in its commitments areas. Its
objectives and the sphere of operations are strictly defined and the funds may
not be spent outside these limits.
The New England Company can lay
claim to being the oldest missionary society still active in Britain. It was
founded by an Act of Oliver Cromwell's Parliament on 27 July 1649. Following
the restoration of the monarchy it was granted a Royal Charter by Charles II in
1662. The Charter provided for the promotion and propagation of "the
Gospel of Christ unto and amongst the heathen natives in or near New England
and parts adjacent in America". To this end the Company sent both
missionaries and teachers to New England and later further afield to Virginia
and New York. Its first Governor was John Winthrop the elder, a lawyer from
Suffolk who later became the first governor of Massachusetts.
The American War of Independence
forced the Company to change the scene of its operations. It took a little time
but in 1786 the Company was advised that it was unable, safely and legally, to
"exercise the Trusts of its Charter in any part of America which is out of
the King's Dominions". Accordingly it transferred its operations to the
remaining Loyalist Colonies in North America in what is now Canada, and major
activity began in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. At the same time the Company
began to give grants to the West Indies. Under his will of 1711 Dr Daniel
Williams had left a substantial bequest to the Company, the proceeds of which
could be applied towards "the advancement of the Christian Religion
amongst Indians, Blacks and Pagans in some or one of the Plantations of His
Majesty King George the Third", but missions did not begin until 1790.
The nineteenth century saw an
expansion of the Company's work westward in Canada, mirroring the political
expansion and development of the country. The Company continued to appoint
missionaries and teachers directly, but came more and more to work in
conjunction with the newly appointed colonial bishops and eventually with the
Canadian Government Department of Indian Affairs. In 1828 for example it was
agreed that a missionary should take directions from his bishop "in
matters purely spiritual" and in all other matters take "the
direction of the Company".
The process of withdrawal from direct involvement continued apace in the twentieth century and the Company agreed to hand the remaining schools and lands it owned to the Department of Indian Affairs. Its efforts became concentrated on effective management of its lands and investments in England, and it was content to send cheques to the bishops in both Canada and the West Indies and to allow them to dispose of the money as they thought fit. Direct contact with the bishops was spasmodic to say the least, the main occasions being the Lambeth Conferences which only took place at ten year intervals.
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The Dr Williams Library
short extracts
from Dr William's Library website… www.dwlib.co.uk
Dr Williams's
Library is the pre-eminent research library of English Protestant
nonconformity. Established under the will of Dr Daniel Williams, the
Library is one of the oldest open to the public still conducted on its original
benefaction. It has never received government funding.
The Charity of Dr Daniel Williams commonly known as
Dr Williams's Trust was established by Dr Daniel Williams in his will dated
26th June 1711. After a number of specific gifts and provisions, Daniel
Williams granted the residue of his estate to 23 Trustees for a period of 2000
years. The main areas supported by the Trustees today are the education of
ministers of ‘the Three Denominations’ and the Library, with the Library now
the most important public work of the Trust.
The Trust also supports an annual lecture in Wales,
which alternates between the Welsh Independent College and the Department of
Religious and Theological Studies, University of Cardiff. The Trustees also
have the right to present candidates to a bursary at Glasgow University
established by Dr Daniel Williams
Dr Williams acquired considerable property, which he
used sparingly ‘as to self, that he might be more useful to others both in his
Life and after his Death’. He was to leave the bulk of his estate (estimated at
£50,000) to charitable purposes. After provisions for his widow, bequests to
the poor, and endowments for the universities of Glasgow and Harvard, and for
the Presbyterian meetings at Wrexham and Burnham in Essex, he established a
Trust for 2000 years for religious and educational purposes. Williams died at
Hoxton on 26 January 1715/6.
Because of errors in the execution of his will, his Trustees faced major obstacles in carrying out his trust. Difficulties concerning his heir at law were only finally settled following Chancery proceedings. In addition, the provisions Williams made in his will for establishing the Library, now the most important part of his Trust, were inadequate. The establishment of the Library in Red Cross Street was only achieved as a result of the efforts of his trustees. The Library finally opened in 1729, with Williams’s original benefaction of about 7600 books.
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Dr Williams wrote many
books. His Will
directed his trustees to reprint his works ‘all such as are not controversial,’
at stated intervals for two thousand years. His books included…
o
The Vanity of Childhood
and Youth … Sermons to Young People, 1691
o
Gospel-truth, stated and
vindicated, 1692. It was translated into Latin by and
published as ‘Veritas Evangelica,’ in
1740, and as ‘Tractatus Selecti,’ in
1760
o
A defence of ‘Gospel
truth’, being a reply to Mr Chancy's first part, and as an explication of the
points in debate, may serve for a reply to all other answers, 1693
o
Gospel truth stated and
vindicated, wherein some of Dr Crisp's opinions are considered, and the
opposite truths are plainly stated and confirmed, the third edition, a large
postscript is now added, 1698
o
A Letter to the Author
of a Discourse of Free Thinking, 1713,
o
Some Queries relating to
the Bill for preventing the Growth of Schism, 1714
o
Practical discourses on
several important subjects by the late Reverend Daniel Williams
Some of the above books have been translated into
Latin and Welsh.
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There is a strong possibility of a connection between the Revd Dr. Daniel Williams, the Winthrop Governors, The New England Company and Revd. Edward Howes, who is another of our Local Authors. Beckingham Hall and Highams Farm (part of Dr. Williams estate at the time), are less than a mile from St Peter’s Church, Goldhanger. Although no direct link between Howes and Williams has been established, in 1629 Governor Winthrop was appointed as the first governor of The New England Company even before he emigrated to the Americas and a Mr Howe is listed as a friend of Dr. Williams, as seen in these extracts…
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