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John Williams
Born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, on August 30, 1817, John Williams was the first graduate of Washington College (now Trinity College) to become its president (serving from 1848 to 1853). After his graduation from the College in 1835, Williams then studied theology informally on campus with the Reverend Samuel F. Jarvis, a High Church Episcopalian, who had loaned his personal library to the College in 1826.
The young Williams was ordained deacon and later priest by former first president of Washington College, Thomas C. Brownell. Between 1837 and 1840, Williams tutored students in Ancient Languages. However, he also served as a back channel, communicating about the “Low Church Party” at Washington College, to the Reverend Jarvis, who had left in 1837 for Middletown, Connecticut, taking his library from Trinity with him. Williams furthered the cause of High Churchmen with his presidency in 1839-1841 of the Associate Alumni of Washington College. He became a member of the House of Convocation, which placed Bishop Brownell into the newly-created position of Chancellor of Washington College, as well as President of the Board of Trustees.
Williams had been serving for six years as Rector of St. George's Church in Schenectady, New York, at the time of his election as president of Trinity College in 1848. He strongly influenced the College's direction towards the teaching of theology. Theological students soon attended Trinity in greater numbers, which led to the adoption of a full course of theology by the Trinity Board of Trustees in 1851. President Williams even fulfilled the increasingly important role of professor of the Bible and Theology. Publishing several books on biblical topics, by 1851 he was named Hobart Professor of History and Literature. He thought History was a subject that ought to be required for undergraduates at Trinity, though he believed it should be taught “with a constant reference to the Holy Scriptures.”
Williams' ordination as Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut on October 26, 1851 made his continued role as Trinity's President somewhat difficult. Unlike President Brownell, who served as Bishop during his entire term as College president, there was some pressure for Williams to resign as Trinity's President. Though he was highly popular at Trinity and within the Church, in 1853, Williams resigned from the presidency. Immediately after leaving that post, he was elected as Trinity's Vice-Chancellor, where he oversaw College affairs (including decisions over future presidents) alongside his High Church mentor, Bishop and Chancellor Brownell. Both Vice-Chancellor and Chancellor were ex-officio positions held for life. At the same time, in 1854 Williams helped to establish Berkeley Divinity School in Middletown, Connecticut. Later, Williams would succeed Brownell to become Chancellor of the College.
Bishop Williams remained deeply involved in the administrative affairs of Trinity College. For example, in 1867 he played a crucial role in inviting Reverend Abner Jackson to accept the college presidency from a very pliant Board of Trustees. Between Williams' departure as President in 1853 and 1888, the seven men who presided over Trinity College in the position of president would contend with the problem of divided leadership. As historian Glenn Weaver has suggested, the tension in authority was even noticed by Trinity students writing for the literary magazine The Trinity Tablet, which noted in December 1888 that “the bishop is practically president.” Amazingly, even in 1888, that Bishop-Chancellor was still John Williams, former president of the college forty years before (1848-1853). Though the Trustees and the Connecticut legislature changed the legal role of the Chancellor in 1889, Williams retained the titles of Chancellor, as well as Chairman of Board of Visitors, until his death in 1899.
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Succeeded By
Sources
Wikipedia: John Williams (bishop of Connecticut)
The History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, pp. 86, 89, 92-96, 113-115, 118, 124, 143-144, 242.