• Thomas and Rebecca had 3 known children who were all born at Gosport, Hampshire: Rebecca, Thomas and Lydia, all listed below.
  
  We know very little of Thomas other than that he became a Congregational Minister at Gosport in 1750 and held that position for 20 years. He is the earliest vindicated direct ancestor we currently have knowledge of. We know he is of Welsh ancestry and whilst he may have been born in Wales, this is by no means certain.
  
  Further details that have been obtained are found HERE in main Williams Family 18&19 Century article, and the sources of information used by Nevil into his research on Rev. Thomas, are listed HERE.
  
  THIS PAGE has details of Rev. Thomas at the time he first appears, and becomes ordained as a Pastor in 1750. It describes how he has been linked to the family.
  
  Currently, the Isgar family can be traced back further than the Williams forbears. Rebecca Isgar(Isger) had two siblings, Lydia (1700 - 22 Nov 1788) who married John Hammond a shoemaker and brewer, and John (1701 - 1 June 1743), a baker. For further of Rebecca Isger's grandparents and Hammod details see this tree, (use browser back button to return here).
  

• Child 1:  Rebecca Williams (1st May 1751 - 15 May 1835). In 1788 she married John Voke (1749 - 2 May 1822).
  John was a Purser in the Royal Navy. Please contact if you are a Voke descendant or have information on Rebecca or John or their forbears.
  
  Child 2:  Thomas Williams (27 May 1753 - 6 Jan 1804) who married 17 April 1783 Mary Marsh (10 April 1756 - 7 November 1831).
  Thomas was born in Gosport, became a hosier at, and a Sheriff of Nottingham. Mary's parents were Henry Marsh (1713 - 1772) a Captain in the Royal Navy and Mary Tyler (1715/20 - 1759).
  Mary's (Thomas's wife) nephew, Edward Garrad Marsh, married her and Thomas's daughter Lydia. For the Marsh connection see this tree (use browser back button to return here).
  For Thomas and Mary's full list of children, see the tree on the HOME PAGE
  
  Child 3:  Lydia Williams (24 July 1757 - 17 June 1791) married 28 April 1784 John Fenn (born C1750).
  They had 3 known children Lydia (1785 - 1789), Harriott (b. 1786), and Rebecca (1791 - 1805). It looks as though Harriott may be the only one with the possibility of descendants. Please make contact if you are a Fenn descendant or have any information on Lydia, John or their ancestors.
   
  

•   Two sons of Thomas jnr.(1753 - 1804) and Mary; Henry and William Williams, arrived in New Zealand as missionaries in the 1820's. They have some 3,500 descendants, mostly New Zealand born, and there is extensive documentation, published and in libraries, including a grand family tree book, 'Faith and Farming', with histories and achievements.
  
    There is a lot of information in family hands amongst the descendants and relatives of the eldest son of Thomas jnr. and Mary, Thomas Sydney Williams, including several family Bibles with much good detail in them. There will be more of that published on this website when available, the autobiography of Edmund Sydney Williams appearing here.
  
    Of John, the fourth child of Thomas jnr. and Mary, there are known descendants today, but as to information on that branch family, there is so far very little.
   
  

•   This branch of the Williams family, is very likely to have its origins in Wales. The earliest forebear of whom we are certain was the Rev. Thomas Williams (above), born c. 1724/25. He was the Congregational minister of the Independent Chapel at Gosport, Hants. from 1750-1770 having been trained at Plasterer's Hall in Addle Street, London, (later Homerton Academy), one of the oldest of the academies established for the training of Congregational ministers. In his Will he refers to 'certain legacies which shall be due at the death of some of my Relatives in the principality of Wales'.
  
    Current thinking suggest that it should not be assumed that the Rev. Thomas was definitely born in Wales, although it is likely, and certainly most likely that his parents were.
  
    Who were these relatives? Were they the Castellmarch, Cochwillan and Penrhyn branches of the Williams family, amongst whom there was considerable landed property, which could have been the source of the expectations that he referred to in his Will? Or were they the non-conformist gentry families who were very common in parts of Breconshire from the the late 17th century to the early 19th century?
  
    The Rev. Thomas had made a commitment to Dissent, which was by no means unique in the family. His son, also Thomas, was brought up as, and remained until his death, an ardent Congregationalist. Thomas junior's children were also christened in Congregational Chapels and were brought up in the social and religious environment of that doctrine. It was not until much later that some of them were coverted to Evangelical Anglicanism. It must be a strong possibility, therefore, that the Williams family was descended from good Welsh Dissenting stock!
  
  More recently (2007) some family papers were acquired that contained a business envelope from L Williams & Sons, Carrington House (Late Gwydyr House). Llanrwst. I think L Williams is Llewellyn Williams - is this a link?  
   
   

A brief introduction to the Reverend Thomas Williams and his wife Rebecca

HOME PAGE

Contact