From 1745 to 1749 Williams was a student at Plasterers' Hall, London,[2] which was a dissenting academy that provided for the training of Congregational ministers in the Calvinist tradition.
James Watson and when he resigned in 1776, David Bogue was appointed as the minister of the Independent Chapel of Gosport.
In 1794 Thomas and Mary and their six children moved to Nottingham, then the thriving centre of the East Midlands industrial revolution.
The industry was based on William Lee's stocking frame knitting machine.
In 1804 when Thomas died of typhus at the age of 50, Mary was left with a heavily mortgaged business with five sons and three daughters to look after.