Col. Israel Williams

HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF STONINGTON, county of New London, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1649 to 1900, by Richard Anson Wheeler, New London, CT, 1900, p. 664

Israel Williams (1709–1788) was an American educator and judge who founded Williams College in 1793 by bequest of Ephraim Williams. Williams and John Worthington were the executors of the will.

Israel Williams was half-brother of Elisha Williams.

GEDCOM Note

New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. CXXXVI., October 1982, Whole Number page , 321.

http://www.lib.unb.ca/collections/loyalist/seeOne.php?id=686&string=

Major, was 2nd in command of all forces on the western front during the French and Indian war. Israel Williams was a Massachusetts Loyalist. He was the son of Rev. William Williams of Hatfield, Massachusetts, who graduated from Harvard College in 1683. Israel Williams graduated from the same college in 1727. After graduation he returned to Hatfield and began accumulating wealth through trading, farming, and land speculation. For several decades he represented Hatfield in the Massachusetts legislature, and served on the executive council from 1761-1767. In 1748, he was appointed the Colonel of the Hampshire County militia and in this capacity was responsible for the defence of western Massachusetts during the French and Indian Wars.

During his long public career he served as a justice of the peace, judge of the court of common pleas for Hampshire County, and a judge of the probate. In 1774, he was appointed a Massachusetts mandamus councillor but did not take the oath of office.

As the American Revolution approached, he was forced to withdraw from public life. During the early years of the Revolution, he was considered one of the leading Loyalists in western Massachusetts. As a result, in 1777 he was imprisoned in Northampton for several months and later confined to his house and deprived of his citizenship until 1780. On one occasion when he was an old man, he was taken from his home by a mob and carried several miles, then placed in a room with a fire but with the doors and chimney closed. He was confined there for several hours and on being released was forced to sign a document dictated by the mob. In 1786, he petitioned the British government for compensation for his sufferings and loss of income. At that time he was living quietly in Hatfield, and died there in 1788 at the age of seventy-nine.

The Israel Williams Papers include letters to and from Israel Williams, William and Ephriam Williams, Andrew Oliver, John Hancock, William Shirley, Thomas Hutchinson, who was a close friend, and a number of other individuals. In addition to the correspondence, there are muster rolls, despatches, journals, and numerous other military records, principally from the time of the French and Indian Wars. Undated material has been microfilmed at the beginning of the reel followed by dated items arranged in chronological order.

The original records are held by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

THE BERKSHIRE LINE. JUDGE PEREZ MARSH AND HIS DESCENDANTS OF DALTON AND PITTSFIELD, BERKSHIRE COUNTY, MASS.

4680 = 4055. DR. AND JUDGE PEREZ4 MARSH

b. at Hadley, Mass., Oct. 25, 1729, son of Capt. Job3 and Me??hitable (Porter) Marsh, (Daniel2, John1.) J. Pierce's diary gives hints as to early education of Perez: "Sept. 9, 1841. Received of Mr. Job Marsh ?1,?? 48??, in order for buying of several books." "Aug. 15, 1744. Go to Cambridge and offer Perez Marsh to college (acc??pted)." Josiah Pierce was a graduate of Harvard college 1735 and a notable man. (See No. 3746.) Perez graduated at Harvard college, 1748, was A. M. 1754 at both Harvard and Yale. He probably studied with Dr. Thomas Williams, at any rate he was his surgeon's mate in the French and Indian war of 1755, and made report of the entire loss, American and English, in the different regiments at the battle of Lake George, Sept. 8, 1755, when Col. Ephraim Williams, the founder of Williams college, was killed. The following paragraph is from the account of that battle in the History of the Williams Family.

"According to a return made by Dr. Perez?? Marsh, surgeon's mate in Col. Williams' regiment, the loss on the part of the English and Americans in both the engagements, was 216 killed and 96 wounded, making a total of 312 and a few missing. Col. Williams' regiment suffered the most, 46 were killed, 20 wounded and several missing." Dr. Perez is also spoken of as "attending to divers sick men at Fort Lyman."

He had been brought into contact with the Williams family by the fact that his uncle John?? Marsh No. 3996 had married Sarah Williams No. 3998, who was sister of Rev. William Williams of Hatfield and aunt of his surgeon, Dr. Thomas Williams and of Col. Ephraim in whose regiment he was surgeon's mate. This also led on to his relation to Sarah Williams, who was dau. of Col. Israel, son of Rev. William Williams.

The tradition in the Marsh family, handed down from the fair Sarah3, is that the gallant Colonel Ephraim4 who was over 40, desired to marry Sarah5 who was 19 and dau. of his half cousin Col. Israel4. Isaac2 Williams (son of Robert1) had, by first wife, Martha Park, a son, Rev. William3 and by second wife Judith Cooper, had children Sarah3 (who m. John3 Marsh) and Ephraim3 of Stockbridge, Mass., father of Col. Ephraim4 and Dr. Thomas4. Col. Ephraim4 sought Sarah3. Sarah declined. He offered to make his will giving all his property to her before starting for Lake George.

She still preferred the surgeon's mate aged 25, to the Colonel of 40 and at Albany the will was made which gave his property to Williams college.

We find, soon after the battle of Lake George, that Dr. Perez Marsh settled on the eastern edge of Pittsfield, the date is uncertain although said to be 1755. He is always spoken of as first of the settlers in what is now Dalton. It was called the Ash??lot Equivalent being given in exchange for lands in New Hampshire. This led the Hadley book to state p. 534, that Perez Marsh "was a physician in Pittsfield," and p. 603, "Sarah (Williams) m. (???) Marsh and resided in Ashuelot, N. H.," which was not the case. Dr. Perez Marsh m. about 1759, No. 4680.

4680. Sarah Williams, b. 1736, he aged 30 and she 23, dau. of Col. Israel Williams and Sarah Chester. The children of these parents will be interested in the parentage of their foremother Sarah Williams. Through her mother, Sarah Chester, we all are descended from:

1. William1 Chester of London and of Bornet, Hertford Co. 2. Leonard2 Chester and Bridget2 Sharpe, dau. John1. 3. John3 Chester and Dorothy2 Hooker of Hartford, sister of the famous Rev. Thomas3 and dau. Thomas1 of England. 4. Leonard4 Chester of England, b. 1609, of Watertown 1633, of Wethersfield later, d. 1648, '. 39, and his wife Mary Wade Sharpe, dau. Nicholas. 5. Capt. John5 Chester, lived 1635-1697 and Sarah Welles 1631-1698, dau. Hon. Thomas Welles, Colonial Governor Connecticut and Elizabeth Hunt. 6. Major John6 Chester, 1656-1711, Judge and Speaker and Hannah Talcott, 1666-1741, dau. Capt. Samuel Talcott and Hannah Holyoke, b. 1644, dau. Elizur Holyoke and Mary Pynchon, dau. William Pynchon founder of Springfield. Elizur was son of Edward Holyoke at Lynn, 1639 who m. 1612 our ancestor, Prudence Stockton, dau. Rev. John of Kinholt, England. 7. Sarah7 Chester, 1707-1770, m. Col. Israel Williams, 1709-1789.

Through Sarah (Williams) Marsh's father, Col. Israel, we all come from his mother, Christian Stoddard, who lived 1676-1764, and her ancestry. She was dau. of Rev. Solomon, 1643-1729, Harvard college 1662, minister at Northampton 56 years and the remarkable Esther Warham who lived 92 years, 1644-1736, dau. of Rev. John Warham, first minister of Windsor, Ct. and Jane, widow of Thomas Newbury. Rev. Solomon was son of Hon. Anthony Stoddard, 1618-1686, to Boston 1639, and Mary Downing (sister Sir George afterwards Lord Downing) dau. Hon. Emanuel and Lucy3 Winthrop, b. Jan. 9, 1600, (they both joined Salem church Nov. 1, 1638) sister Gov. John and dau. Adam3 Winthrop, b. London, Aug. 10, 1548, m. 1579, Anne Brown, who had a French Bible, d. 1629, dau. of Henry of Edwardston, clothier and Agnes Brown, d. Dec. 17, 1590, son of Adam2 Winthrop, 1498-1562, Lord of the Manor Groton and Patron of the living, (m. 1534 Agnes Sharpe, 1616-1665, dau. of Robert,) son of Adam1 Winthrop and Joanna Burton. (Those who wish can trace in the Stoddard book their ancestry back from Hon. Anthony b. 1618 to William Stoddard, Knight who came, 1066, with his cousin William the Conqueror from Normandy to England.)

The Williams descent is from Robert1, d. Sept. 1, 1693?? and Elizabeth Stratton d. July 28, 1674. (They came over 1638.) Capt. Isaac??, 1638-1708 and Martha Park, Rev. William3 Williams 1665 to 1741, a minister 56 years at Hatfield, Mass., called by his nephew, Jonathan Edwards, son of Esther Stoddard, "a great divine of very comprehensive knowledge;" "Christ was the great subject of his preaching;" and Dr. Chauncey in his sketch of eminent men in New England calls him "a greater man" than his father-in-law, Rev. Solomon Stoddard, who, Elliott says, "has always been considered one of the greatest divines in New England",?? Chauncey also thinks him greater than any of his sons who were all men of mark. His son Col. Israel4 Williams, living 1709-1789, Harvard college 1729, active in French and Indian wars 1744 and 1755, commissary under Col. John Stoddard of Northampton (one of the three so called "river gods" who m. Prudence Chester sister of Col. Israel's wife) and upon Col. Stoddard's death, succeeded him and was charged with the plan of the entire system of works to protect all Western Massachusetts and Western New Hampshire. He had command of all the forces and garrisons from the Connecticut to the Housatonic and the Hudson. "Probably no man in the country during the war of 1755 rendered more efficient aid than Col. Williams." That was a school for the revolution. It makes us sad to say that his very loyalty to King and old England and the flag he had served under, made him a tory. "While confined in the jail at Northampton for his political sentiments, his dau. a girl of 17, (about 1770) carried him his daily food from Hatfield, submitting to the greatest indignities from suspicious opposers." To day of her death in Pittsfield, '. 81, Dec. 11, 1834, she spoke of the revolutionary war as rebellion and of herself as a subject of the English crown. She was a woman of great wit and brilliancy, became wife of John Chandler Williams and in her dying room, taking the communion bread with the rector's words "Take and ??at this in remembrance that Christ died for thee," irrepressibly replied, "That I will!" The people of Hatfield after the revolution grew more lenient, and being cured of their hostility to Col. Williams they were accustomed as for the minister when he entered or left church, so also to rise and continue standing while Col. Israel passed to his seat or the open air.

On the way to and from French and Indian battle fields, men of Hampshire found out the beauty and promise of the Housatonic valley and Berkshire Hills. There four of Col. Israel Williams' eight children settled, two at Pittsfield Center, and two, three miles c??ast, in Ashuelot Equivalent, afterwards Dalton. At the center were Eunice, wife of Maj. Israel Stoddard, and Lucretia, who had c??ared for her father in Northampton jail, now the wife of John Chandler Williams, Esq., Harvard college 1778, whose three children m. one, Hon. Edward Newton; another, Moses Hayden, member of congress; a third, Harris Seymour of Canandaigua, N. Y.

Dea. William Williams and Dr. Perez and Sarah (Williams) Marsh settled as neighbors close by the eastern Pittsfield border, in full sight of Pittsfield, on the slope whose ridge a little higher up commands a view of Greylock on the north and westward all the Housatonic valley, and the scalloped Taconic range toward wonderful sunsets, and through the gap where the Boston & Albany railway passes out of New England into New York, a glorious view of the mighty Catskill mountains.

At the age of 35 in 1764 Dr. Perez Marsh was appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Berkshire county and held the office for 16 years until 1781. Judge Perez and Sarah (Williams) Marsh joined the Pittsfield church in 1765, the next year after it was formed. Rev. Thomas Allen was their pastor and their daughter m. the famous parson's son. Five daughters married very prominent citizens of Pittsfield, and they could not have asked more pleasant surroundings or prospects.

The town of Dalton was "detached from Pittsfield" and incorporated in 1784 and the first meeting for its organization was held April 19th at the house of Judge Perez Marsh. Of the first warrants (four in all) one was posted in his dwelling house. Nathaniel Kellogg who had been with him one of the three first settlers about 1755, had m. No. 4008, Hannah Barnard Hastings. dau. of Abigail (Marsh) Hastings, who was cousin of Perez Marsh. Dea. William Williams did not move into Dalton till some years after 1755. He was a trustee of Williams college and for several years state senator, called in History of Dalton "a leader and guide, an ornament and glory to the town." Dr. Perez d. in his 55th year, May 20, 1784. Sarah (Williams) Marsh d. June 2, 1817, '. about 81. Children: 4681. Chester5, b. Oct. 1, 1760; m. Hannah Burnham, 4692. 4682. Sarah, b. March 28, 1762; m. Israel Peck, 4701. 4683. Lucretia, b. March 20, 1764; d. Feb. 15, 1768. 4684. Martha, b. Nov. 5, 1765; m. Thomas Gold, 4858. 4685. Eunice, b. Sept. 9, 1767; m. Darius Larned, 4925. 4686. Henry, b. July 18, 1769; d. June 13, 1770. 4687. Henry, b. Sept. 11, 1771; m. Betsy Lawrence, 5245. 4688. Lucretia, b. Jan. 9, 1774; m. William Mellen, 4948. 4689. Elizabeth, b. Sept. 8, 1776; m. Jonathan Allen, 5201. 4690. Harriet, b. July 31, 1779; d. Oct., 1781. 4691. Christopher, b. Aug. 31, 1782; d. unm. Feb., 1806, of small pox caught from a patient of his father.

MARSH--MELLENS.

4948 = 4688. LUCRETIA5 MARSH

b. at Dalton, Mass., Jan. 9, 1774, dau. of Judge Perez4 Marsh, (Capt. Job3, Daniel2, John1); m. at Dalton, Nov. 8, 1791, No. 4948.

4948. Capt. William Henry2 Mellen, b. Hopkinton, Mass., May 20, 1766, son of Lieut. Col. James1 Mellen; d. Hudson, N. Y., Jan. 11, 1826. She resided long with her dau. Mrs. Leeds in N. Y. City and d. with her children in Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec. 21, 1851. Children:

4949. Betsy6, b. May 18, 1793; m. Timothy Kellogg, 4959. 4950. Lovett Russell, b. April 17, 1795; m. Lucretia D. Taylor, 5055. 4951. Louisa Billings, b. Pittsfield, July 28, 1797; d. Hudson, N. Y., June 17, 1814. 4952. Mary Warren, b. Sept. 2, 1800; m. Samuel Leeds, 5080. 4953. Martha Marsh, b. Jan. 12, 1803; m. Joseph Benjamin, 5132. 4954. Harriet Lucretia, b. Pittsfield, Jan. 15, 1805; d. there Aug. 3, 1805. 4955. Christopher Marsh, b. Pittsfield, July. 23, 1806; m. Catherine A. Villee, 5152. 4956. William Henry, b. Athens, N. Y., Oct. 10, 1810; m. Catherine T. Ostrander, 5162. 4957. Charlotte Sophia, b. Athens, N. Y. Dec. 17, 1812; m. Wm. W. Pinneo, 5168.

MARSH--MELLEN--KELLOGGS.

4959 = 4949. BETSY6 MELLEN

b. Pittsfield, Mass., May 18, 1793, dau. of Lucretia6 (Marsh) Mellen5, (Judge Perez4 Marsh, Capt. Job3, Daniel2, John1); m. July 4, 1810, at Athens, N. Y., No. 4959.

4959. Timothy Kellogg, b. at Stillwater, N. Y., July 20, 1786. He d. at Brooklyn, N. Y., April 7, 1855. She d. there Oct. 6, 1873. They resided at New York City and Brooklyn. Children:

4960. Sarah Williams7, b. Hudson, Aug. 11, 1811; d. New York City, Nov., 1812. 4961. Robert Ransom, b. May 18, 1813; m. Mary E. Morse, 4971. 4962. Charles, b. Hudson, N. Y., March 31, 1816; m. Walden, N. Y. May 5, 1842, Catherine Ann Neafie. Studied for the ministry, became judge. No children. Adopted Kate Harman, child of his sister. 4963. DeWitt Clinton, b. Feb. 6, 1818; d. N. Y. City, Jan. 6, 1826. 4964. Louisa Isabella, b. March 31, 1820; m. L. W. Gilbert, 4993. 4965. Sarah Williams, b. June 1, 1822; m. Charles F. Burckett, 5001. 4966. Mary Elizabeth, b. May 28, 1824; m. Herbert M. Harman, 5007. 4967. Martha Benjamin, b. Sept. 4, 1826; m. James R. Van Brunt, 5014. 4968. Walter Lawrence, b. Jan. 6, 1829; m. Ruth Francis, 5027. 4969. Sophia Lucretia, b. Nov. 8, 1831; m. Edward Orr, 5029. 4970. Josephine Maria, b. March 10, 1834; m. Geo. W. Harman, 5046.