William Williams was born, in 1717, at Cefnycoed, in the parish of Llanfair-ar-y-bryn, Carmarthenshire. He was well educated, as he was intended for the medical profession. "His religious feelings," says his biographer, "were at first painful. His convictions of sin were deep and alarming; but his subsequent joy proportionably high." In 1740 he was ordained a deacon by the Bishop of St. David's, and had the curacies, for three years, of Llanwrtyd and Llanddewi Abergwesin. Whitefield, with whom, and the other Methodists, including the Countess of Huntingdon, he became intimate, encouraged him to become an itinerant preacher, and the bishop consequently would not give him "full orders." He did not suffer so much as some of the Methodists did; but he was more than once…