With the death of Daniel Williams on 26 January 1716, aged seventy-two, his will, running to forty-four pages in print and some nine thousand words, became effective. Soon the pattern was established that his trustees each received a copy of the will. Their lawyers referred to it to ascertain Williams's intentions before confirming or denying Dr Williams's Trust's (DWT) ability to commit resources. These first trustees set up those charities that his will directed and found suitable premises for the library, which opened in 1730. In time Dr Williams's Library (DWL) became the leading repository for the books and archives of English religious nonconformity and DWT's main concern. Williams's own books, and the ‘large & usefull Library’ of his friend William Bates (1625–99), purchased by Williams, formed the centre of this collection.

To commemorate the centenary in 1816 DWT published Papers Relating to the late Daniel Williams, D.D. and the Trust Established by his Will. Almost seventy years later in 1885 Walter David Jeremy offered short biographies of all the trustees from DWT's beginning. In 1916 the trustees had planned to publish a history of the foundation and a catalogue of DWL's printed books, acquired since 1801. The outbreak of war in 1914 disrupted their plans and neither work appeared. Instead A Short Account of the Charity & Library Established under the Will of the Late Rev. Daniel Williams, D.D. was issued in 1917 to mark DWT's bicentenary. This Short Account was based on articles published in the journal, The Inquirer, written by the secretary and librarian, R. Travers Herford, and the sub-librarian, Stephen Kay Jones. The senior trustee, Philip H. Wicksteed (1844–1927), explained that additional details had been supplied by Francis H. Jones, DWT's secretary and librarian 1886–1914, and Stephen Kay Jones's father, whose knowledge of DWT was ‘exhaustive’. Although some published lectures by individual trustees and two by librarians have concentrated on the library, these have examined aspects of the work, rather than provided an overview. The tercentenary of Williams's death in 2016 called for a fuller history. Hence the present volume.