John Williams was a Welsh-born goldsmith based in London who worked for the British royal family.Hervey Degge Sitwell, "The Jewel House and the Royal Goldsmiths", The Archaeological Journal, 116 (1960), pp. 136–137.

Background He was a son of William Coetmor, and is associated with the property Hafod Lwyfog in Nant Gwynant near Beddgelert. In 1610 he donated a silver chalice and paten-cover to the church in Beddgelert.WILLIAMS, JOHN (fl.1584-1627?), goldsmith, Dictionary of Welsh Biography Williams is said to have founded a chapel at Nanwhynen.Daines Barrington, Miscellanies (London, 1781), p. 431.

Career Williams was an apprentice of the London goldsmith and Mayor Richard Martin in 1584. Martin supplied silver plate to Queen Elizabeth. By November 1598, he was working at the Sign of the Cross Keys in Cheapside.John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland, 13:1 (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 341 no. 264.

Williams worked for James VI and I and Prince Henry. He provided silver gilt plate, cups and dishes, gold chains, and medallions with the king's portrait,Frederick Devon, Issues of the Exchequer during the Reign of King James I (London: Rodwell, 1836), p. 29. many of which were given to ambassadors visiting London.WILLIAMS, JOHN (fl.1584-1627?), goldsmith, Dictionary of Welsh Biography Recipients of plate and medals bought from Williams between 1603 and 1606 include the Venetian diplomats Nicolò Molin and Scaramelli, and other diplomats including Andrew Sinclair, Christian Barnekow, Steen Brahe, Peder Munk, and Henrik Ramel. Anne of Denmark gave John Florio a cup of his making at his grandchild's christening.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), pp. 600-7: See external links for documents at the Folger.

Williams supplied the gilt plate given by King James to Adam Newton, the tutor of Prince Henry, in June 1605 when he married Katherine Puckering.John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), p. 600.

Williams provided Anne of Denmark with a "fountain of silver gilt, well chased, containing one basin with two tops, one of them being three satyres or wild men, the other a woman with a sail or flag". The fountain had three taps or cocks decorated with mermaids. It was used at Somerset House. The wild men were heraldic supporters of the Danish royal arms.Arthur J. Collins, Jewels and Plate of Elizabeth I (London, 1955), pp. 140, 384.

In September 1609, the Lord Chamberlain, Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, asked him to provide £2000 worth of plate to the Count Vaudemont.HMC Salisbury Hatfield, 18 (London, 1940), p. 305.

Michael Drayton mentioned his friend John Williams in a preface to Poly-Olbion (London, 1612), addressed "to my Friends the Cambro-Britans".

In 1614 he made gilt plate given to Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia at the baptism of her son Henry Frederick.Mary Anne Everett Green, Calendar State Papers Domestic James I, 1611-1618, p. 227, SP14/76 f.95 Latin. He also made plate given to Jean Drummond on her marriage to Lord Roxburghe, to John Murray of the bedchamber, and Audrey Walsingham.Calendar State Papers Domestic James I, 1611-1618, p. 380.

In September 1615, the Earl of Somerset sent plate to Williams to be exchanged and remade in expectation of the christening of his daughter Anne Carr. Somerset sent two Nuremberg basins and ewers as a pattern.A. R. Braunmuller, 'Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset', Linda Levy Peck, The Mental World of the Jacobean Court (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 236–37.

He loaned £5000 to King James in 1621 on the security of ten jewels from the royal collection.Calendar State Papers Domestic James I, 1619-1623, pp. 293, 308. In 1624, Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex pawned silver plate with Williams for his living expenses.Ann Rosalind Jones and Peter Stallybrass, Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory (Cambridge, 2000), p. 28.

Family

Sources disagree about his family of children and grandchildren. A son, also John Williams (d. 1637) was a London goldsmith, who later settled at Minster Court, Thanet. Other children include Sir Edmund Williams (died 1644) of Marnhull (a royal manor formerly in the jointure lands of Catherine Parr), Dorset,Colin J. Brett, Crown Revenues from Somerset and Dorset (Somerset Record Society, 2012), pp. 7, 38 who married Mary Beaumont, and the royal physician Morris Williams.Daines Barrington, Miscellanies (London, 1781), p. 431: Samuel Rush Meyrick, Heraldic Visitations of Wales and Part of the Marches, vol. 2 (Llandovery, 1846), p. 439

References

External links Warrant to pay John Williams, 23 July 1604, Folger Shakespeare Library Warrant from King James to pay John Williams, 31 December 1604, Folger Shakespeare Library