George Williams (priest)

George Williams (1814–1878) was an English cleric, academic and antiquary.

Born at Eton on 4 April 1814, Williams was son of Edward Williams, a bookseller and publisher there. He was educated on the foundation at Eton College, in the first form of the lower school in 1820, and was admitted scholar on 15 September 1829. On 14 July 1832 he was admitted to a scholarship at King's College, Cambridge, and was a fellow from 14 July 1835 to 1870. He graduated B.A. 1837, M.A. 1840, was admitted ad eundem at Oxford on 10 June 1847, and proceeded B.D. at Cambridge in 1849.

In 1837 Williams was ordained, and on 22 September 1838 he was appointed by Eton College to the perpetual curacies of Great Bricet and Wattisham, which he held until Michaelmas 1840. He was appointed by Archbishop William Howley to accompany Bishop Michael Alexander as chaplain to Jerusalem, and was there from 1841 to May 1843. He then served as chaplain at St. Petersburg (1844–5). He was left with the project bringing together the Greek and Anglican churches.

In 1846 Williams took up residence at Cambridge. He filled the post of dean of arts at King's until 1848, and of dean of divinity from 1848 to 1850. He was appointed warden of St. Columba's College at Rathfarnham, near Dublin, in 1850. The college was mainly kept in existence by the support of Lord John George de la Poer Beresford, the archbishop of Armagh. When, in 1853, Williams joined with George Anthony Denison, Edward Pusey and others in protests against the actions of Samuel Gobat, the then bishop of Jerusalem, for attempting to convert adherents of the Greek Orthodox church, the archbishop called on him to resign. An angry correspondence then ensued, and the archbishop broke his connection with the college but Williams retained his post until 1856.

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