[4][5] Williams was educated in New Zealand before attending Magdelen Hall (now Hertford College, Oxford) from 1847 where he obtained a third class honours degree in June 1852.

In the following year he married Sarah Wanklyn at St Paul's Church, Witherslack on 6 June 1853,[7] and both set sail in August on a five-month journey to New Zealand.

[6][8] The First Taranaki War, from March 1860 until 1862 resulted in the East Cape and Poverty Bay area became increasingly unsettled.

The Ngāti Kaipoho chief Raharuhi told Governor Thomas Gore Browne that the Māori did not recognise Queen Victoria's claim to rule over them and that the lands which the settlers in Poverty Bay had obtained should be returned.

He commented on the Ringatū religion: “Their manner was reverent and the petitions contained in their prayers were framed in language taken from the Old Testament, but the obvious objection to the whole system was that it was anti-Christian, being a deliberate rejection of all that the love of God has provided for sinners in Jesus Christ.”[12] In 1870 Williams, purchased land in Gisborne where he built Te Rau Kahikatea, which was his family home from 1877 until 1894.

[13] In nearly buildings he established Te Rau Kahikatea Theological College for Māori clergymen, which accepted students from 1883.

[18] Williams was elected the third Bishop of Waiapu by the Diocesan Synod on 25 September 1894, and was consecrated in the Napier Cathedral on 20 January 1895.

Williams retired in 1909 when he found the job too difficult; although he continued to acted as the President of the New Zealand Church Missionary Association, which was formed in 1892.