THE RIGHT REV. JAMES W. WILLIAMS, D.D.,
BISHOP OF QUEBEC.
Bishop Williams is a son of the late Rev. David Williams, who was for many years Rector of Banghurst, Hampshire, England. He was born at the town of Overton, Hampshire, in 1825, and his childhood was chiefly passed in that neighbourhood. He was intended for holy orders from his earliest years. In his boyhood he attended for some time at an educational establishment at Crewkerne, a town in the south-eastern part of Somersetshire, whence he passed to Pembroke College, Oxford. His collegiate course was not specially noteworthy, but was marked by considerable diligence. He graduated as B.A. in 1851, taking honours in classics. He in due course obtained his degrees of M.A. and D.D. He was admitted to Deacon's Orders by the Lord Bishop of Oxford, and (in 1856) to Priest's Orders by the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells. He for a short time held curacies respectively in Buckinghamshire and Somersetshire. His classical attainments were of more than average excellence, and seeing no prospect of immediate advancement in England, he in 1857 came over to Canada to assist in organizing a school in connection with Bishop's College, Lennoxville. Within a short time after his arrival he was appointed Rector of the College Grammar School, and soon afterwards succeeded to the Classical Professorship of the College, a position which he retained until his elevation to the Episcopacy.
Upon the death of the late Right Rev. George Jehoshaphat Mountain, Bishop of Quebec, in 1863, the subject of this sketch was appointed his successor by the Synod; and on the 11th of June of that year he was consecrated at Quebec by the Most Reverend the Metropolitan, assisted by the Bishops of Toronto, Ontario, Huron and Vermont. His first Episcopal act was to advance three Deacons to the Priesthood.
The See over which his jurisdiction extends was constituted in the year 1793, and formerly comprised the whole of Upper and Lower Canada. Its extent has since been from time to time curtailed, and it is now confined to that part of the Province of Quebec extending from Three Rivers to the Straits of Belleisle and New Brunswick, on the shores of the St. Lawrence and all east of a line drawn from Three Rivers to Lake Memphremagog.
Bishop Williams is a plain and unaffected preacher, and a man of scholarly tastes. He makes no pretence to showy or splendid gifts of pulpit oratory, but is known as an energetic and industrious ecclesiastic, careful for the spiritual welfare of his diocese and clergy. Several of his lectures and sermons have been published, and have been highly commended by the religious press of Canada and the United States. Among them may be mentioned his Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Quebec, at the Visitation held in Bishop's College, Lennoxville, in 1864; and a lecture on Self-Education, published at Quebec in 1865.