Samuel Williams
1743 - 1817
Born in Waltham, Massachusetts on 23 April 1743, Samuel Williams was the son of the Reverent Warham and Abigail Williams. He attended Harvard, where he studied under John Winthrop, graduating in 1761. Williams accompanied WInthrop to St. John's, Newfoundland in 1761 to observer the Transit of Venus. He entered the ministry in 1763 and was pastor at the First Church of Bradford until 1779. He also taught school in Bradford, and one of his students was Benjamin Thompson, later Count Rumford.
Upon Winthrop's death in 1779, he succeeded him as the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. He took office in 1780. His research was in the areas of astronomy, meteorology, and magnetism. He expanded the Harvard curriculum, offering new lectures in astronomy and meteorology. His most notable achievements included the organizing of an expedition behind British enemy lines in 1780 in order to observe a total solar eclipse in Penobscot Bay, Maine. He is credited with being the first to observe "Bailey's beads." Between 1785 and 1788, he was involved in the survey of the boundary between New York and Massachusetts. Apparatus used in these expeditions and research survives in the Harvard Collection.
Williams and his wife had an active social life that led them to spend extravagantly and go into considerable debt. His Harvard career came to an abrupt end when he was forced to resign in June 1788 under pressure from the Harvard Corporation and the Superior Court of Massachusetts for allegedly forging receipts from a creditor who had died in order to cover up his debts. Following the financial scandal, Williams moved to Rutland, Vermont.
In Rutland, Williams became the editor of the Rutland Herald and the Rural Magazine; or, Vermont Repository, and returned to the ministry. He helped to establish the University of Vermont in Burlington, and he published a natural and civil history of Vermont in 1794. In 1795, he left the ministry and moved to Middlebury, VT, where he entered the printing business. In 1805, Vermont commissioned him to survey the boundary between Vermont and Canada.
Williams was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Meteorological Society of Mannheim.
He died on 2 January 1817 and was buried in Rutland.