WILLIAMS, RICHARD WELLINGTON

Copyright 2011-2018 John N. Lupia, III

Richard Wellington Williams (1853-1909), was born on July 15, 1853, at Montreal, Québec, son of Richard Williams (1822-1854), an English immigrant and confectioner, and Annie Gendle Williams (1827-1900). He was a chemist, druggist, and numismatist living at Trois-Rivières, Québec.

His father died when he was a child, and his mother remarried to Thomas Roderick Massey, J.P., of Nicolet County, Quebec.

In 1865, the family moved into the town of Nicolet, where he was educated and after graduation attended Nicolet College. This is the same college which had a coin collection containing the 1897 Unveiling of the Washington Monument Medal issued by the Cincinnati Society now in the Lupia Numismatic Library. It is possible Williams was the donor.

After graduating in 1870, he worked for a druggist in Three Rivers.

In 1874, he began collecting coins.

In 1875, he moved to Montreal, and studied at the Montreal College of Pharmacy. He graduated as a pharmaceutical chemist in 1877. He opened a drug store in Three Rivers 1878, where he establish his first business.

On October 9th, 1879, he married, Alice Jane Lamby (1856-1942), eldest daughter of John Thomas Lambly. They had six children a son, John Lewis Wellington Williams (1880-1952), and five daughters.

Store Card of R. W. Williams circa 1889, Breton 614. It was first published in 1893 in the Canadian Antiquarian Society and Numismatic Journal on page 63, followed by a notice in an article published by Horatio R. Storer , "The Medals, Jetton, and Tokens, illustrative of the Science of Medicine," American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 28, No. 1, July (1893) : 10.

In 1886, he was elected one of twelve councillors of the Pharmaceutical Association of the province of Québec.

In January 1889, the partnership of Hoerner & Williams was dissolved due to the retirement of Mr. Hoerner. R. W. Williams continued the drug store under his own name.

On June 8, 1889, he joined the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal.

Frank Ellis of St. Louis Stamp & Coin correspondence with R. W. Williams, postmarked December 21, 1903. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library.

He died on January 209, 1909. He is buried in Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Bibliography :

George Maclean Rose, A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography: Being Chiefly Men of the Time, Vol. 2 (1888) : 495-496.

Pharmaceutical Record, February 18 (1889) : 55

P. Napoléon Breton (1894) : 81

The Numismatist, Vol. 4, No. 1, January (1892) : 9