Williams, Robert
? - 1775

Itinerant in the Irish connexion from 1766 on. He sailed for America c.1769, about the same time as Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmore, his fare being paid for by an Irish layman, Thomas Ashton. Landing at Norfolk VA, he made his way to New York. While in America he travelled widely and gave support to Robert Strawbridge's work in Maryland. He was able to convince the Anglican clergyman Devereux Jarratt in Dinwiddie County, VA, that the Methodists were loyal Anglicans, not rivals, and so won his support for the work there.

Without consultation or authority he took upon himself to publish some of John Wesley's books. He was suspected by both Francis Asbury and Wesley himself of doing so for personal gain and in 1773 the American Conference put an end to this personal initiative. His final months were spent preaching in Virginia, and possibly as far south as North Carolina. He died on 26 September 1775.

Sources
  • E.S. Bucke (ed.), The History of American Methodism (1964), vol. 1 pp.91-93, 125-27