identiary, and parson, all at once.'
Williams held the post of Lord Keeper until 1626, when he was deprived
of his office, and various charges, including one of betraying the
King's secrets, were brought against him by Archbishop Laud, his great
enemy. He was found guilty of subornation of perjury in defending
himself from these charges, suspended from all his dignities and
appointments, condemned to suffer imprisonment during the pleasure of
the King, and fined ten thousand pounds. Lloyd says 'he suffered for
conniving at Puritans, out of hatred to Bishop Laud; and for favouring
Papists, out of love to them.' At the meeting of the Long Parliament
Williams was released, and having been again received into favour at
court, he was translated in 1641 to the Archbishopric of York. During
the Civil War he retired to his estate at Aber-Conway, and for some time
held Conway Castle for the King. He died of a quinsy on the 25th of
March 1650, and was interred in Llandegay church, where a monument was
erected to his memory by his nephew and heir Sir Griffyth Williams.

Archbishop Williams was a generous patron of learning, and Lloyd states
that 'his pensions to Scholars were more numerous than all the Bishops
and Noble-mens besides'; and that he imposed 'Rent-charges on all the
Benefices in his Gift as Lord Keeper, or Bishop of Lincoln, to maintain
hopeful youth.' He formed a library in his palace at Buckden in
Huntingdonshire, which was dispersed or destroyed during his
imprisonment,[35] but upon his release he collected another, which he
bequeathed to St. John's College, Cambridge, having previously given
upwards of two thousand pounds to the college for the purpose of
building a new library; and in Bagford and Oldys's _London Libraries_ we
find an account of the books which he gave to the library of Westminster
Abbey. 'In the great cloister of the abbey,' they write, 'is a
well-furnished library, considering the time when it was erected by Dr.
Williams, Dean of Westminster and Bishop of Lincoln; who was a great
promoter of learning. He purchased the books of the heirs of one Baker
of Highgate, and founded it for public use every day in Term, from nine
to twelve in the forenoon, and from two till four in the afternoon. The
MSS. are kept in the inner part, but by an accident many of them were
burnt.' Mr. James Yeowell, the editor of the work, adds in a note that
'Dean Williams converted a waste room, situate in the east side of t