Charlotte Bronte's first devotee

The title of this post is my current working title for my biography of William Smith Williams, with the strap line: Who was this man, William Smith Williams, who discovered and nurtured Charlotte Bronte?

The name, William Smith Williams, will strike a chord with readers of Bronte biographies. He was the reader at Smith Elder & Co who first spotted Charlotte’s genius. He then nurtured her talent as is evident from the one hundred or so letters she wrote to him in the course of her short career. 

But who was he? Whence had he come and whither did he go? A passage from a letter his nephew, Robert Hill, wrote on his death urges exploration: ‘There were complementary notices of his death in nearly all the papers. Nobody could have been more universally beloved or respected than he was.’

I read the obituaries and they were indeed full of praise and affection for this quiet man. The Athenaeum wrote: ‘His literally taste was excellent, and he had great powers of discernment. His judgement and his opinion regarding the works was very highly valued, more especially by young authors.’ One sentence, in the Publishers Circular, in particular caught my attention: ‘The truth is that Mr Williams’ previous education had fitted him to be a judge of good work, and he was singularly fair and unbiased.’ I had to discover what this ‘previous education’ may have been.

My researches are bearing fruit and I hope will appear in an article for Bronte Studies and will be part of a biography which I am seeking to publish later this year.