author

John Williams

1727–1798

A Welsh dissenting minister and scholar, he is best remembered for a major Greek New Testament concordance and for lively late-18th-century books arguing that Welsh voyagers reached America before Columbus. His career joined serious biblical study with a taste for big historical questions.

1 Audiobook

An Enquiry into the Truth of the Tradition, Concerning the Discovery of America, by Prince Madog ab Owen Gwynedd, about the Year, 1170

An Enquiry into the Truth of the Tradition, Concerning the Discovery of America, by Prince Madog ab Owen Gwynedd, about the Year, 1170

by John Williams

About the author

Born in Lampeter on 25 March 1727, he was educated locally and then trained for the nonconformist ministry at the Cambrian Academy in Carmarthen. After early work as a tutor, he served congregations at Stamford, Wokingham, and later Sydenham, where he spent much of his ministry.

His best-known scholarly work was A Concordance to the Greek New Testament (1767), a major reference book for biblical study. He also wrote on religion, language teaching, and church reform, showing a wide range of interests beyond preaching.

In the 1790s, he published books defending the Welsh tradition that Prince Madog discovered America, a subject that brought him wider attention. He died in Islington on 15 April 1798.