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Williams
was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1829, and ordained deacon in 1855. The
Episcopal Church sent him to China, where he was ordained priest in 1857. In
1859 he was sent to Nagasaki, Japan, and in 1866 was consecrated Bishop of
China and Japan. In 1868 Japan was opened to far greater contact with the
West than before, and he determined that he could achieve best results by
concentrating his efforts on Japan. In 1874 (or is that 1877?) a new bishop
(Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewski, see October 15) was consecrated for
China, and Williams went to Tokyo (then called Edo or Yedo), where he
founded what is now St Paul's University. In 1878 he helped unite several
mission efforts in the formation of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the Holy Catholic
Church in Japan. In 1889 his health began to fail, and he asked to be
relieved. In 1893 a successor was appointed, and Williams stayed on, living
in Kyoto and helping to open new mission stations. He returned to America in
1908 and died 2 December 1910.
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