Williams was born in South Australia, a son of Thomas Williams and his second wife Catherine née Codd, who arrived on the Platina in February 1839. The father, a banker and farmer, was appointed to the Legislative Council, then jailed for six months for false pretences. and died in England. Williams was educated at St. Peter's College and entered St. Mary's Hall, Oxford University, but returned to Adelaide without a degree, In 1871 he was ordained by Bishop Short as a deacon, and as a priest in 1874. In 1874 he was appointed curate of St. Peter's Church, Glenelg under Canon Field, remaining there for two years. He was at Melrose for five years 1875 to 1878?, servicing the townships of Laura, Jamestown, Gladstone, Georgetown and Port Pirie. Port Augusta was later added to his responsibilities. He resigned the incumbency in 1879 and was assigned to St Jude's, Brighton. He resigned that cure in 1881, expecting a transfer to Melbourne but was sent instead to Hobart, Tasmania where he relieved Canon Bailey at the St. John the Baptist Church on Goulburn Street. While there, in 1882, a sermon he gave criticising an article in The Mercury brought an intemperate response from that newspaper. Williams returned to South Australia shortly after, accepting an invitation to serve as the first incumbent of the Church of the Holy Cross in Mount Gambier. In 1884 he founded a high school for boys in Doughty Terrace, Mount Gambier, at which many of the town's future leaders were educated. The existing grammar school closed soon after, and its principal, Richard Newstead Hobart, joined with Williams as second master. Rev. Donald Kerr was another recruit to the school's teaching staff. The Holy Cross Church closed in 1888 and Williams quit the ministry around the same time. His exodus from the Holy Cross church, and perhaps from the Church of England, may have been a consequence of friction between himself and Church authorities. He was of the "High Church" persuasion; dogmatic and outspoken in his views. He no doubt took the classes in Latin, of which he was a considerable scholar. The school closed in 1903, and Williams left Mount Gambier a few years later. The building was for a time used as a private hospital, then may have been used as a girls' school. He moved to Naracoorte or Bordertown, and may have been involved with a political organisation. He died at the Grange.
Other interests
Hartley Williams was an enthusiastic sportsman: he excelled at cricket, boxing and rowing. In his later hears he was fond of angling and gardening. In 1902 he was appointed Inspector of Fisheries for the River Glenelg, where he had a residence. He was for some time a close friend of Canons Samuel Green, James Pollitt and F. Slaney Poole.
Family
Hartley Williams married Emma Jane Moorhouse of Melrose on 10 October 1871 at the Church of Holy Trinity, Melrose. Their children, many of whom used "Hartley-Williams" as though it were a surname, include:
Maude Eveline Hartley Williams married Harry De Neufville Lucas in 1913
Charles Hartley Williams married South Australia, to Elime Matilda Pries in Busselton on 1 October 1914. He and Algeric Williams traded at Northam as "Williams Brothers".
Ethelberga Hartley "Berga" Williams, often mis-spelled "Ethelburga", married Lionel Edward Francis Despard of Renmark on 25 September 1906. She married again, to Ernest Malcolm French on 9 February 1932.
Irene Hartley Williams
Grace Nona Hartley Williams married Lt-Col. John Ewen McPherson at Eastbourne, Sussex, remained in England.
Algeric Hartley "Eric" Williams moved to Western Australia, married Gladys Eleanor Prockter of Toodyay on 29 July 1912
Montagu Hartley Williams married Phyllis Maud Claridge in 1924, lived at Cowell, South Australia
