EV. FRANCIS WILLIAMSON was born in Southampton county, Virginia, November 19, 1773, and died at Murfreesborough, North Carolina, September 11, 1833, at the age of sixty years. He married Miss Elizabeth Worrell, September 17, 1801, and to them were born eight children, four of whom were brought up to maturity. After his marriage he moved to Hertford county, North Carolina, where it is said he lived in affluence. It was here that he and his wife united with the Methodist church. His education had been neglected in his youth, but his desire for knowledge was so great that he devoted much time to reading and study. Soon he began to preach, but not working in harmony with the rules of the church, it is said that he was disowned by that body. But he built a convenient framed meeting house on his own plantation, and continued the ministry alone with the same ardor and zeal as had characterized his labors before. This church was called Bethel, and here Joseph Thomas also preached and baptized. Elder Williamson was successful in leading many souls to Christ.

      Elder Francis Williamson united with the Eastern Virginia Conference which was organized in 1818, the organization being completed at Cypress chapel in 1819. The preliminary meeting, it is said, was held at Holy Neck chapel in Nansemond county. He had however doubtless co-operated in the General Meetings before this time, and was possibly at the meeting in 1810, when the subject of baptism was discussed by Rev. James O'Kelly and Rev. William Guirey, which called forth, it is said, this reply from the latter, as to the leader of the movement: "Neither you nor I; Christ is the leader of his own Church." He labored in the time of the first [69] days of the ministry of Nelson Millar, Mills Barrett, and the Livesays.

      In 1822, while he was on a visit with his oldest son Elijah to Ohio, the Conference adopted a written constitution, which was construed by Elder Joshua Livesay and others to be a creed; and in 1823, he was among those who opposed the constitution with all his power and failing to carry his side he left the Conference, and refused to unite with it again. But he continued an active minister until his death. If he had favored more systematic organization, the cause in which he was one of the pioneers would have developed more effectively for the good of man and the glory of God. "In the preparation of his sermons, his sons say that he spent two or three hours a day in a room by himself, in prayer and study, where he also wrote his sermons, although the written sermons were never taken to the pulpit with him, nor even the notes. In his delivery he began with a moderate voice, but as he got interested in his subject, he spoke with greater force, and even became quite excited towards the close."

[LCM 69-70]