Gershom Mott Williams

Gershom Mott Williams (February 11, 1857 – April 14, 1923) was an American bishop. He was the first Episcopalian bishop of Marquette. He was a church journalist, author, and translator. Williams graduated from Cornell University and received his master's degree and Doctor of Divinity degree from Hobart College. Although he passed the bar in 1879, Williams began an extensive career in the Episcopal Church, having positions in Buffalo, Milwaukee, and Detroit before becoming a bishop. He was involved in many church commissions, including the preparation of and attendance at the Lambeth Conference of 1908.

Williams was the grandson of John R. Williams, the first mayor of Detroit and a delegate to the convention by which Michigan acceded to the Constitution of the United States. His father, Thomas Williams, served as a Civil War general and died in the Battle of Baton Rouge (1862). Williams himself was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and served for four years as the chaplain to the state militia of Michigan.

Early life Williams was born on February 11, 1857, in Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, New York. Mott published his father's personal papers. His grandfather was John R. Williams, the first mayor of the city. Williams' great-grandfather, Thomas Williams, settled in Detroit in 1765 and the Williams family remained there from that time. Josepha was a physician and like her mother, Mary Neosho Williams, a significant landowner in Evergreen, Colorado. Josepha was married in 1896 to Canon Charles Winfred Douglas,

Following his father's death in 1862, Williams lived in Newburgh, New York, where he was confirmed by the Rt. Rev. Horatio Potter. He moved to Detroit in 1877 on the relation of the Anglican Communion to the Church of Sweden. Williams traveled to Sweden in 1920 in advance of the Lambeth Conference to ascertain Scandinavian Church relations

Williams was deputy of the General Conventions twice. and was Bishop-in-Charge of the American Churches in Europe, officiating at the service dedicating the Church of the Holy Trinity in Paris as the Episcopal cathedral in Europe in 1923. He also sat on commissions to revise the hymnal and to create a Swedish version of the Prayer Book. Williams translated the Common Prayer Book from English to Swedish.

Williams resigned October 1919 due to a long-standing illness.

Military and political Williams played a key role in Michigan's statehood as the president of the Constitutional Convention of Assent. Williams organized and was the state's first Major-General of the Michigan state troops. beginning December 18, 1883. He was a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. She descended from the Biddle family of Philadelphia. and she was granddaughter of John Biddle, an early mayor of Detroit and Congressman.

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