William Williams

History

Light on the Toorak Hill. And a Scientific Fellow. Minister of the Jubilee Church, Rev. William Williams, F.L.S,

The Wesleyan Jubilee Church, at the corner of Toorak and Williams roads, Toorak, is a noteworthy feature situated as it is on an eminence which vies with those of the adjacent St John's and Presbyterian churches, and even as it is physically on an elevation so is its minister mentally and spiritually one who stands upon & height among bis fellow men. For the Rev. William Williams, an Australian native by birth and one of the best type of the Methodist school, is a gentleman with a broad scope of learning and of power lying behind his pleasant features. His mind has ripened with the fruits of intellectual labor and with singular ability as a speaker he brings to bear on the doctrines of Christianity a cultured intelligence necessary in these days of State schools and literary institutions. The Rev. William Williams is a native Australian, having been born at Kooringa, South Australia, in 1848. It was at that township that the Burra Burra copper mines, afterwards famous throughout the world, were accidentally discovered by a shepherd, four years before the birth of the subject of our sketch. He was educated at the public schools, and afterwards received bis training as a student for the ministry in Adelaide. At the Wesleyan conference in 1869 he was received as a probationer and immediately removed to Victoria. His first circuit was at Daylesford, where he was the second preacher under the Rev. B. C. Flockart, who is now resident in Malvern, having retired from active ministerial work. After 12 months at that place he was next sent to take charge of the St Arnaud circuit, where he had to do a good deal of pioneering work and opened up for service the Carr's Plains country. He was the first Methodist preacher on Mogg's Plains — now known as Swanwater— where he established a very flourishing church.

The next year saw him at Wandiligong, in the Ovens district, where he remained two years, completing his term of probation and being received at the close of that period by the Conference into full connection. After a year at Eldorado in the same district he was transferred to Gippsland, being appointed superintendent of the Sale circuit, then in a very depressed state owing to the illness of the previous minister. His efforts to restore the cause there were highly successful, and the services were restored to their proper strength and some - burdensome debts were paid off. Two years spent at Bairnsdale completed the list his country work. It is a fact, for the assurance tables which cannot He say so, that clergymen as a body are healthy and long lived. This is to be accounted for to an extent, probably, by the many changes of locality which itinerant ministers especially are subjected to, and by the bracing, active, out-of-door life. A young Methodist minister in a country circuit has a deal of arduous pioneering work to go through. Mr. Williams had to travel in some circuits between 4000 and 5000 miles per annum, taking three services on Sundays at from 30 to 35 miles distant, and being engaged at meetings in different parts of the bush night after night, so that those days when the buggy bad not to be brought out was regarded as a high holiday. Mr. Williams' first metropolitan circuit was that of Brunswick-street, Fitzroy, where he spent three years, the three succeeding ones being devoted to the Dunolly circuit, followed by a transference to Lydiard-street, Ballarat. He lived first at Sebastopol as the third minister, and at the end of the year went to Pleasant-street as second minister. From thence he went to the Sandhurst circuit, and as third minister resided at Eaglehawk, being removed thence to Forest-street as superintendent, with three colleagues to help in the work. Two years since he came to the Jubilee Church, Toorak, which through the Illness of his precessor wad not altogether in a flourishing condition, but which he has succeeded is awakening from its lethargy and where much good spiritual work is being accomplished. It is not alone in bis ministerial work that Mr. Williams bas proved successful. Taking a deep interest in science and especially in work with the microscope, his specialty in that direction being zoology, he has identified himself when stationed in the centres of population with various movements for the advancement of science. At Ballarat he was elected vice president of the Field Club and Science Society, with Professsor Mica Smith as a col league, holding an honorary membership still in consideration of the scientific work done by him. He was likewise elected an honorary member of the Ballarat Iron workers' Association in recognition of work done and papers submitted by him. On his arrival at Sandhurst be was immediately elected a member of the committee of the Science Society there, ...

See also

Ballarat Science and Field Naturalists Club

External links

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--Clare K.Gervasoni 00:17, 6 September 2014 (EST)