The Reverend Williams, formerly vicar of St Mathias in Plymouth, had been in charge of St James' Church in Exeter (which occupied what later became the football ground car park) since 1898. At the time of his arrival football had already been played on the Parish Field - often known as Mr Bradford's Field - and soon the new school (which a century later was housing Exeter City's offices and function rooms) was to be built. In supporting City's bid for professional status the clergyman would have been amenable towards an enclosed ground with permanent structures being constructed on his 'patch'. 

His involvement in Exeter City's 'project' was indicative of the Church's contempory interest in a range of new community activities and enterprises at a time when cities and towns were rapidly growing. It may also be seen as in keeping with Victorian and Edwardian notions of Muscular Christianity in similar fashion to his predecessors' encouragement of cricket.

Later the rector of Farringdon in East Devon, and a Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral, the Reverend Williams died in 1933 aged eighty-two. He was buried in the churchyard at Farringdon and a stained glass window was installed in his memory at St James' only for the church to be destroyed in the Exeter blitz in 1942.