Frederick G. Williams
Frederick Granger Williams was an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, serving in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from 1833 to 1837.
Williams was born at Suffield, Connecticut, to William Wheeler Williams and Ruth Granger. He married Rebecca Swain in December 1815. By 1828 he was living in Chardon, Ohio, and he moved to Kirtland in 1830. While in Ohio, he associated himself with Sidney Rigdon and the Disciples of Christ. When Oliver Cowdery and other early Latter Day Saints were traveling through Kirtland, they taught and baptized many in Rigdon’s congregation, including Williams.
On July 20, 1832, Williams was appointed scribe to Joseph Smith and joined the church’s leading council the next year. He was a member of the committee appointed to publish the Doctrine and Covenants, a portion of the church’s canon, as well as the church’s first hymnal, compiled by Smith's wife, Emma, under the auspices of F.G. Williams & Co. in 1835.
In 1837, Williams was elected a justice of the peace in Kirtland, appointed an officer in the Kirtland Safety Society, released from the First Presidency, and moved to Far West, Caldwell, County, Missouri. Although there is no record of an excommunication, Williams was rebaptized in August 1838. He was excommunicated in March 1839 while Joseph Smith was in Liberty Jail, but was restored to fellowship at a church conference presided over by Smith in April 1840. Williams died at Quincy, Illinois.
As Smith's scribe and counselor, Williams became a close friend and confidant of the prophet. Joseph and Emma Smith named one of their sons Frederick Granger Williams Smith.
The lineage of Williams continues in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Williams's great-great-grandson, and namesake, Frederick Granger Williams, served as president of the Recife Brazil Temple and then as a professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
