William Richards

Born in 1749 in Pembrokeshire, Wales, he had only limited formal schooling, but he built a wide-ranging literary life through study, preaching, and debate. He entered the Baptist ministry as a young man and later settled in King's Lynn, Norfolk, where he served for many years.

Alongside his religious work, he wrote on an unusually broad set of subjects. His publications included theology and political controversy, a Welsh-English dictionary, and historical writing. He is especially remembered for The History of Lynn (1812), a large and ambitious account of the town's civil, religious, commercial, and military past.

His life shows how an 18th-century dissenting minister could also become a historian, antiquarian, and language writer. He died in 1818, leaving behind work valued both for its local history and for its place in Welsh nonconformist literary culture.