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THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF REVEREND SIMON-FINLEY WILLIAMS

Everyone has heard some variation of this age-old mystery. Someone passes away only to “return” to their friends and family years later. From television series and movies to novels, this popular genre of mystery might sound more like science fiction than reality. However, such an occurrence is not reserved for the realm of fiction. It did happen in Windham.

Simon-Finley Williams was born in Princeton, New Jersey, on July 23, 1764, to parents Simon Williams and Maria Floyd Williams. The elder Simon Williams was born in Ireland in 1729 and at the age of sixteen became engaged to a young lady his age who was of a much higher social standing than himself. The young woman, Maria Floyd, was the daughter of Captain John Floyd, Esquire, who served under General Honeywood in the British army. Her parents did not see the sense in her marrying someone of a lower social standing and forbade the marriage to take place. Refusing to let such an obstacle stand in the way of their being together, Simon and Maria fled to England.

Fortunately for the young couple, King George II took an interest in them and paid for their schooling. As was common in the day, Simon furthered his education beyond what Maria, as a woman, would have been expected to complete. After Simon became a learned man, the couple was married on April 30, 1749, in London. The king then sent them to St. Thomas Island, where Simon spent several years teaching. Sometime around 1758, the family, which grew to include three children born to the couple in Jamaica, moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Simon continued his profession as a teacher.

Wanting to further his education, Simon took up studies at the College of New Jersey, graduating in 1763. Having become interested in religion through the preaching of Reverend Gilbert Tennent, it is believed he may have wanted an American college education to ease his way into a position in the church. At the time he graduated, and for some time after, the Williams family resided in Fogg’s Manor, New Jersey. His first post in a church came in 1766, when he was called to Windham, where he became a pastor, spending the rest of his life in town.

While in Windham, the couple had seven more children, including their seventh child, Simon-Finley. Simon Williams passed away on November 10, 1793; his wife survived him by almost twelve years, dying on July 28, 1805.

Simon-Finley grew up in Windham and eventually married Mary Gregg, who also resided in town. Like his father, Simon-Finley became a very educated man, graduating from Dartmouth College at the age of twentyone in 1785. Following in the footsteps of his father, he took up the clerical profession, being ordained in Methuen, Massachusetts, on December 13, 1786. However, he left the church in Methuen soon after because, according to Leonard Morrison, “his mind became unsettled; he had trouble with his church.” The exact nature of this trouble is unknown to this day, but one particularly interesting stanza of his final sermon there has been recorded for posterity:

Oh, might I fly to change my place,

How would I choose to dwell

In some wide, lonesome wilderness,

And leave these gates of hell.

The cause of his departure from Methuen was certainly not a distaste for a clerical occupation because Williams found himself a job at a church in Meredith, New Hampshire, shortly after. Although it is unknown what his salary was in Methuen, the people of Meredith surely felt his services were of value. They offered him a generous salary of sixty pounds, only twenty of which was to be paid in cash. Another third of the salary was to be paid in corn and other grains, and the rest was to be paid in beef and pork. His post did not last more than five years before there was turmoil between Williams and the church.

In 1797, Williams was dismissed from his position and excommunicated. This time a record was made regarding the nature of his dismissal; there were charges made against him concerning his moral character. However, there are no available records about the exact nature of the charges, so it is up to the reader to imagine what Reverend Williams might have been guilty of. Shortly after being excommunicated, Williams abandoned his family and joined the U.S. Navy, serving aboard the USS Essex as either a ship’s steward or chaplain, depending on which records one consults.

In the summer of 1800, the ship reached Batavia, the modern-day capital of Indonesia, Jakarta. His superiors on the frigate knew of his clerical background and arranged for Williams to give an oration aboard the ship on the occasion of the Fourth of July. However, Williams was suddenly stricken with fever and died the day before he had planned to give his speech. He was given a proper burial at sea, and his family was notified of his untimely passing.

The widowed Mary Gregg did not wait long before marrying again, this time to John Anderson of Windham. A long time passed, and the couple grew old together, enjoying a relatively uneventful life. However, this was soon changed with the arrival of a man who would become the center of one of the greatest mysteries of Windham’s history. Although no one knew where he came from or why he came to Windham, these were not the deepest of the mysteries surrounding him.

While he was reluctant to reveal the details of his past or anything personal in nature, he was much more willing to give detailed accounts of Windham’s history to anyone who inquired. How could a stranger have been so acquainted with the history of a town he had seemingly never visited before? This was not the only thing the people he interacted with, and people to this day, find surprising. The stranger was well versed with the history and intimate details of the Williams family, the family of the late Reverend Simon-Finley Williams.

While in town, the stranger moved about in what Morrison described as “a mysterious manner,” yet he did not wish to avoid detection, as he visited many people. One of those the man was interested in paying a visit to was the elderly Mary Anderson, the widow of Reverend Simon-Finley Williams. Whatever was discussed between them is lost to history, as Anderson steadfastly refused to disclose any information about her conversation with the stranger, nor any details he may have revealed to her about his own identity.

The stranger left town soon after speaking with Mrs. Anderson, leaving Windham as mysteriously and as suddenly as he entered. No one in town ever saw the man again, but those who were familiar with Reverend Simon-Finley Williams were adamant the stranger who came to town was the late reverend, a man who had been dead—his body supposedly deep below the ocean—for decades.