Rector of Ystradgynlais 1846-1856

Walter Jones Williams was the eldest son of Howell Jones Williams, of Coity Mawr, Brecon, and his wife, Harriet Gough, daughter of the Reverend Fleming Gough, Rector of Ystradgynlais 1796-1835 and Squire of Ynyscedwyn from 1808.

Walter Jones Williams was born in Swansea on 3rd July 1814, the first of eight children of his parents. He was baptised at Saint Mary's Church, Swansea on 2nd September 1814. Walter had three brothers, although one, Fleming Gough Williams, died an infant in 1817. The others were Fleming Gough Howell Games Williams, who rose to become a Lieutenant in the 41st Regiment of Foot but died aged only 25 in 1851, and John Wilkins Williams, born in 1832 when his mother was 42.

His sisters were Anne Harriet Williams, born 1815 and who married the Rev. Calvert Richard Jones, Susan Beata Williams, born 1820, Mary Martha Gough Williams, born in 1821, and Gladys Games Portrey Williams, born in 1829 who married the Rev. Arthur Sidney Pott.

In January 1819, he and his eldest sister Anne Harriet were rebaptised in Ystradgynlais by their grandfather, the Reverend Fleming Gough.

Rev. Walter Jones Williams attended Saint John's College of the University of Oxford, enrolling in 1833 aged 19 and graduating in 1837 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. At the time the B.A. degree was not in a particular subject but covered a range (Latin and Greek texts, Mathematics, Geometry, Philosophy and Theology) and was primarily, if not exclusively, pursued by those seeking a career in the clergy.

In the 1841 census, Walter Jones Williams is listed as being present at Ynyscedwyn House, Ystradgynlais, with his uncle Richard Douglas Gough, his wife Constance Elizabeth, and their only daughter to that date Frances Martha, who would sadly die in 1842. Also present is his father, Howell Jones Williams, and his sister Anne Harriet with her husband, the Rev. Calvert Richard Jones, and their daughter Christiana Henrietta Victoria Games Jones.

In June 1844, Walter Jones Williams was ordained by the Bishop of Hereford as a "deacon of Oxford" by "letters dismissory from the Lord Bishop of Saint David's" (The Morning Post, Thursday 6th June 1844). The following year, in May 1845 the Bishop of Hereford ordained Walter Jones Williams as "Priest of Oxford" (The Morning Post, 26th May 1845). In the National Library of Wales, the record with the Reference code SD/P/3399 is the Diocese of Saint David's record of the presentation of Walter J Williams to the benefice of Ystradgynlais. It is dated 1845, but the exact date cannot be read on the header.

Whether in later 1845, or in 1846 as the history of the church of Ystradgynlais has it in its date list, the Reverend Walter J Williams was appointed Rector of Ystradgynlais in succession to Rev. Timothy Davies, who had held that position since the death of Rev. Fleming Gough ten years before, but who was now moving on to become Vicar of Defynnog. Walter Jones Williams was certainly in position at Ystradgynlais by April 1846 when he joined with other local clergy in writing an appeal in the newspaper protesting the merger of the North Wales bishoprics of Saint Asaph's and Bangor.

Reverend Walter Jones Williams was Rector of Ystradgynlais from 1846 to the start 1856, being the last Rector to solely preach in the old church before it was demolished and replaced by the current building, completed in 1861 by his successor, the Rev Thomas Walters. Walter Jones Williams does not seem to have taken another posting within the Church. The Clergy Lists of 1859 and 1866 list him as without a position, whilst the 1861 census finds him living in Brecon and recording him as a clergyman with "no cure", which can be understood as meaning "no care of souls". He is additionally described as a landowner, and magistrate, and those may well have become his full-time occupations.

Online Resources for Historians & Genealogists

Ynyscedwyn Estate Papers (held at West Glamorgan Archive Service)
https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/95dd982a-7943-30b7-83bc-e615e82f6ba5

Clergy of the Church of England Database (Up to 1835)
https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/

Forest of Dean Family History Trust (Free Registration)
https://forest-of-dean.net

Saint David's diocesan records at the National Library of Wales
https://archifau.llyfrgell.cymru/index.php/st-davids-diocesan-records-5