Joseph Williams (composer)

During his short lifetime he published a collection of his compositions, Sacred Music (Tipton: for the Author, c. 1830), containing 20 hymn tunes.

He met an unfortunate death in a mining-related accident on the Himley Road, Dudley, on 14 April 1834.

[1] He was walking along the road near to a mine pit, and an explosion taking place threw a large rock into the air which killed him instantly.

[3] A second collection of his music, The Celestial Chorister (London: Joseph Hart, c. 1835), was published posthumously, as the title page states, to raise money for his widow and 6 children.

The collection is unusual in that 12 of the hymns take their titles from the 12 signs of the Zodiac.