Williams was born on January 30, 1856, in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, the son of the Reverend Richard Jones Williams, a Welsh Presbyterian minister, and Elizabeth Johnston.

Williams attended high school in Shullsburg, Wisconsin, and then studied at the East Greenwich Academy in Rhode Island, graduating in 1877.

In 1892, he became rector of Christ Church in Chicago, where he remained till 1899.

[4][5][6] He was elected coadjutor bishop in May 1899 on the first ballot, over the opposition of those who called him a "ritualist" or too high church.

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