User:WilyD/William Case/William Henry Williams

William Henry Williams (c. 1795 - ?) was a circuit rider in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Williams was born in the United States to Welsh immigrants. He was raised in Orange county, New York.

Around 1818, he moved to Upper Canada, working as a local preacher in Canboro and Gainsboro. Williams was accepted on trial as a circuit rider by the Genesee conference at the annual meeting of 1820, which was held in Niagara Falls. He was re-assigned to the Long Point circuit, where he road alongside James Jackson. Although competition in Upper Canada between the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Church of Great Britain led to an overall decrease in membership in the Episcopal church, Long Point saw an increase in membership of one hundred and two people. Egerton Ryerson lived in the Long Point area, and Jackson and Williams cajoled him into giving an exhortation, which went diasterously. In 1821, he was again assigned the to Long Point circuit, where he was joined by Isaac B. Smith. Circuit membership decreased by eighty four that year. In 1822, he was assigned to the Ottawa circuit. The circuit had been ridden the previous year by David Spore, who'd been expelled from the ranks of the circuit riders. In all, membership on the Ottawa circuit declined from 136 to 128 that year.

In 1823, he was assigned to the Cornwall circuit, where he rode alongside John Black.

References

• Carroll, John (1869). Case and his cotemporaries, or, The Canadian itinerants' memorial constituting a biographical history of Methodism in Canada, from its introduction into the Province, till the death of the Rev. Wm. Case in 1855. Vol. II. Toronto: Wesleyan Conference Office.