The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-22
HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
DISCOURSE ON
 ELISHA WILLIAMS,

sons Reads Interestingly of the Noted
 Soldier, Diplomat aud Statesman.
 A large and deeply interested audi ence listened to the able address by Colonel Francis Parsons at Monday evenings meeting of the New Haven Historical society. In substance the address was as follows:
 Elisha Williams was of Wethersfield, and was in his time, the early part of the eighteenth century, teacher preacher, rector and president of Yale college, a soldier in the expedition against Louisburg, and diplomat, go7 ing to England in behalf of claims of the colonists. Elisha Williams was the son of Robert Williams, of Roxbury, whose descendants number many emil nent men. He seemed to have a faeui- ty of doing many things we'll in prac- tical way. Of Roberts descendants one hundred were graduates of liar, ward and eighty were graduates of Yale. Elisha Williams graduated from Harvard in 1711 at the age of seven teen years and became the teacher of a grammar school at Hadley, afterwards teaching in Hatfield, Mass. It was in TIA that he came into Connecticut and settled in Wethersfeld and married Miss Chester. daughter of one of the prominent citizens. He studied theol- ogy, worked at farming and took one excursion to Nova Scotia, where he preached to the fishermen.
 t,fa In Wethersf1eid there arose the contest over the Collegiate school at Saybrook, in which Elihu Yale was beginning to take an interest. It was apparent that a mistake had been made in locating the school, and the senior class had been transferred to New Haven. and the majority of the undergraduates had come up to Wethersfield and were under the tuition of MT. Williams. who seemed to have unusual faculty in at- tracting the young men, although he was but twenty-two years old himself. Following this hegira of the students from Saybrook there arose an agitation to locate the school at Hartford, which was finally lost through the non-con- currence of the houses of the general assembly, the house favoring 1t and the senate voting against it.
 Elisha Williams was chosen repre- sentative to the general assembly from Wethersfield and was prominent in that body during this period. In 17f9 he was "sanctified by illness" and di- rectly after entered upon the ministry, taking the pastorate of the church in Newington, then in new building. He was the minister and preacher in New ington until 1725, his preaching being characterized by grace of diction and by much earnestness.
 In 1725 he was chosen rector and president of Yale college, although he was not the first choice of the, trustees, Nathaniel Williams of Boston, Mir Sal- tonstall of New London, MT. Wiggles.- worth and William Russell all having declined the honor. lin view of his ser- vices having been lost to Newington, the general assembly voted that the town be freed from county tax for the space, of four years that 1t might in the meantime secure another minister, and at the succeeding session voted one hundred pounds and sixteen shillings to the town as a 'recompense for It's loss, the understanding being that Yale college was to pay like amount, Rec tor Williams was not settled in New Haven until 1726, when he was duly in- stalled into a house of some preten- sions on what is now College street. He found the college demoralized and immediately set himself about to cor rect vice and disorder among the stu dents and was successful In seeing the college grow under his administration. He not only was the president, but he taught classes, preached and attended many sermons by other preachers, talk ing copious notes, some of which are in existence. During his incumbency of the executive office at Yale the college received the gift from Dean Berkeley of his farm, a circumstance that aroused much interest because of the high church proclivities of the dean.
 Rector Williams was at the head of Yale from the age of thirty-two until he was forty-fve, when he resigned, and it was supposed that he had am bitions looking towards the gubernato- 1Aol Shoti' WhItiCE tutS WdS ttuS UT not, he had an inherent love for poli- tics and after his return to Wethers- field he was again sent to the general assembly and was speaker of the lower house. He was outspoken against the act which provided; as a result of the Great Awakening" that no stranger or evangelist should preach in any pull pit. He denounced this as one of the unrighteous acts of the assembly, and afterwards saw 1t drop from the stat ute books.
 In 1744, when the war of the Austrian cession broke out and the expedition to Louisburg was contemplated, Rector Williams went to Boston with Jona- than Trumbull to consult with Cover nor Shirley of Massachusetts. Cover nor Shirley was so impressed with Will Hams ability and his appearance that he requested that he be given an office in one of the Connecticut regiments, and he was assigned as chaplain to one of them and sailed from New London in 1745. After the capture of the place he was sought to remain in the garri- son. but returned again to Wethers- field. The following year new regi- ment was organized to prosecute the war and Rector Williams was made colonel and commander chief of the colony's troops. The regiment did not however, leave the state, as there was