Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/565

Rh of age. — The first Robert's brother. John, senator, b. in Surry county, N. C, 29 Jan., 1778 ; d. in Knox- ville, Tenn., 10 Aug., 1837, was appointed a captain in the 6th U. S. infantry in April, 1799, but re- signed in June, 1800, studied law in Salisbury, N. C, was admitted to the bar in 1803, and re- moved to the vicinity of Knoxville, Tenn., where he entered into practice. In 1812 he raised a regi- ment of mounted volunteers, and conducted a vic- torious campaign against the Seminoles. On his return he was commissioned as colonel of the 39th U. S. infantry, and ordered to the Creek nation, where he was in the battle of the Horse-Shoe Bend of the Tallapoosa. Gen. Andrew Jackson's report of this action failed to do justice to his command in the opinion of Col. Williams, who from that time was Jackson's most powerful and determined adversary. He served till the close of the war with Great Britain, and was then elected U. S. senator from Tennessee to serve through the unex- pired term of George W. Campbell, and was re- elected, serving from 4 Dec, 1815, till 3 March, 1823. He was in 1825 appointed charge d'affaires in Central America, but remained in that post only six days. He was afterward a member of the state senate, and declined a seat on the supreme bench of Tennessee. — His wife, Melinua, was a sister of Hugh L. White. — Another brother, Lewis, member of congress, b. in Surry county, N. C, 1 Feb., 1786 ; d. in Washington, D. C, 20 Feb., 1842, was gradu- ated at the University of North Carolina in 1808, and in 1813 entered political life as a member of the state house of commons. He was re-elected in 1814, and on 4 Dec, 1815, took his seat in con- gress, to which body he was returned twelve times, remaining a member until his death. John Q. Adams and other representatives pronounced eulo- gies on Mr. Williams, who was commonly styled "the father of the house." — Lewis's twin brother, Thomas Lanier, jurist, b. in Sussex county, N. C, 1 Feb., 1786; d. in Nashville, Tenn., 3 Dec, 1856, was graduated at the University of North Carolina with the valedictory. After studying law, he re- moved to Knoxville, Tenn. He was several times elected a representative and also a senator to the General assembly. For a short time he was one of the judges of the supreme court, and voluntarily relinquished that office to the regret of the bar. In 1836. on the establishment of corporate courts of equity jurisdiction in Tennessee, he was chosen chancellor and served as such for sixteen years. He was regarded as the father of equity jurispru- dence in Tennessee, and during his long judicial career only one or two of his decisions were re- versed. — John's son, Joseph Lanier, member of congress, b. in Tennessee, about 1800, resided in Knoxville, and was elected as a Whig to congress, and twice re-elected, serving from 4 Sept., 1837, till 3 March, 1843.

WILLIAMS, Rohert, soldier, b. in Culpeper county, Va., 5 Nov., 1829. His grandfather, James Williams, served in the Virginia line in the Revo- lutionary war and also in command of Virginia troops during the war of 1812.. Robert was edu- cated at the local schools and at the U. S. military academy, where he was graduated and promoted to brevet 2d lieutenant in the 1st dragoons in 1851. He served' at the cavalry-school for practice and with his regiment in Oregon for six years, in the mean time becoming 2d lieutenant in 1853, and 1st lieutenant in 1855. In 1857 he was assigned to duty as an assistant instructor in tactics at West Point. Having been appointed in May, 1861. cap- tain and assistant adjutant-general, he served as such until October, when he was commissioned colonel of the 1st Massachusetts cavalry. He was engaged in operations at Hilton Head, S. C, in the attack on Secession ville, James island, S. C, and in central Virginia till October, 1862, when he re- signed from the volunteer service and was assigned to duty at the war department, having become major and assistant adjutant-general in July of the same year. He afterward served as adjutant- general, respectively, of the Departments of the Missouri and of the Platte, and of the Division of the Missouri. He was promoted by seniority in his department to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in February, 1869, colonel, 1 July, 1881, and by brevet to the grade of brigadier-general, U. S. Army, 13 March, 1865, " for diligent, faithful, and meritori- ous services during the rebellion." Gen. Williams married the widow of Stephen A. Douglas. He has published professional papers in periodicals.

WILLIAMS, Roger, founder of Rhode Island. b. in Wales in 1599 ; d. in Rhode Island early in 1683. Little is known of his family or his early life. He seems to have been employed in some capacity by the great lawyer Sir Edward Coke, who placed him at the Charterhouse school in 1621, and afterward at Pembroke college, Cambridge, where he took a degree. He was admitted to orders in the Church of England, but soon became the friend and companion of John Cotton and Thomas Hooker, and adopted the most advanced views of the Puritan party. He embarked at Bristol, 1 Dec, 1630, in the ship "Lion," and on 5 Feb., 1631, arrived at Boston. He had then been recently married, but of his wife's early history very little is known. He was distinguished as an eloquent preacher and ripe scholar, and soon after his arrival in Massachusetts he was invited to the church at Salem, as. assistant to the pastor, Mr. Skelton. But rumors of his heretical opinions were already abroad. It was said that he had declared the ministers at Boston blameworthy for not formally proclaiming their penitence for ever having lived in communion with the Church of England, and that he denied the right of magistrates to inflict punishment for Sabbath-breaking, or " any other offence that was a breach of the first table." In spite of opposition based upon these charges, Mr. Williams was settled, 12 April, 1631, as assistant or teacher in the Salem church. But he found his position there so uncomfortable that before the end of the summer he thought it best to seek shelter under the more tolerant jurisdiction of the Plymouth colony. At Plymouth he was settled in August, 1631, as assistant to the pastor, Ralph Smith. Here he made his first acquaintance with the chiefs of the Wampanoags and Narragansetts. and, being an excellent linguist, soon learned to talk in the language of these Indians. About this time he was first suspected of the " heresy of Anabaptism." For such an aggressive and vigorous thinker the field of action at Plymouth seemed too narrow, and in 1633 he returned to Salem, followed by several members of the congregation who had become devotedly attached to him. In 1634 he was settled as pastor of the church in Salem. There he soon got into trouble by denying the validity of the charter granted in 1629 by Charles I. to the Company of Massachusetts Bay. He maintained that the land belonged to the Indians, and not to the king of England, who therefore had no right to give it away. The promulgation of this view seemed dangerous to the founders of Massachusetts, who were in many ways incurring the risk of arousing the hostility of the king, and were therefore anxious to avoid offending him on such a point as this. It was likely to be interpreted in England as indicating an inten-