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THE REVEREND ISAAC WILLIAMS OF YSTRAD TEILO Three articles in the second number of this volume of Ceredigion were devoted to church history, the first of these being a detailed account of the building of Llanrhystud church in the 1850s.1 It might therefore appear inappropriate to give further space so soon to Isaac Williams, vicar of that parish for over forty years until his death in 1811. It should, however, be remembered that he served the greater part of his incumbency in the previous century and that he was also associated with many other parts of Ceredigion in one way or another. As further justification for the inclusion of this article it is proposed not to confine the treatment to the subject's professional career but also to examine his family connections, to stress his connection with a Welsh scholar, and to describe some of his activities as a tenant farmer. This reverend gentleman's main claim to fame is that he was the grandfather of his illustrious grandson and namesake, Isaac Williams, a leading member of the Oxford Movement, whose autobiography was edited by his brother-in-law the Reverend Canon Sir George Prevost and who was also the subject of a study by the Reverend Canon Owain W. Jones published in 1971.2 2 The purpose of this article is to show that the grandfather thoroughly deserves attention in his own right and is, in a manner of speaking, perfectly capable of standing on his own two feet. Isaac Williams senior was the son of David Williams who resided at Tyddyn y Wyre fach in the parish of Llanrhystud and was classed as a gentleman when his eldest son's pre-nuptial settlement was drawn up in 1769.3 Canon Jones has, I believe, succeeded in placing David Williams in his correct position in society when he states that he passed in Wales for a gentleman, although had he been a citizen of England his status would have been that of a yeoman.4 There are many in- stances of a lower social status being attributed to a clergyman's father by an English official, particularly the compilers of the records of the university of Oxford, than by a local Welsh scribe in such docu- ments as wills and title deeds. Readers of CEREDIGION will, I am sure, forgive me for citing a man from the other side of the Teifi as an example of this dual standing in society when they learn that he owned property within the confines of the old county of Cardigan. In a deed executed in 1692 and also in his will proved early in 1696 Howell Rees of the parish of Talley is classed as a gentleman, but when his youngest son entered Magdalen College in the university of Oxford in 1707 the father's status is given as a 'pleb[eian] The son bore the same baptismal name as his father, but it should be noted that the family did not have a fixed surname and that the son was known as Howell Price.