Rebekah Williams

Children of Thomas Lanier and Elizabeth Hicks were:

7- Rebecca Lanier b: 27 January 1757 in Lunenburg Co., VA; d: 20 March 1832 +Col. Joseph Williams b: 27 March 1748; m: 11 September 1772 in Granville Co., NC; d: Aft. 1800

Rebekah (Lanier) & John Williams were married in Orange Co., NC on September 16, 1772. Rebekah was the sister of Sarah Lanier and was also related to Sidney Lanier, the Southern poet.

Rebekah was raising a growing family and running a large operation while her husband was off fighting in the Revolutionary War. Here is the version of her trials and tribulations as related by a descendant, Mrs. Hayne Davis: "Mrs. Williams, who had three sons, took charge at home and managed all things well. Before leaving for the war, Colonel Williams had laid in all kinds of supplies for his family and we have little idea what that meant in these days of plenty and comfort. After a time came news of the approach of the Army of Lord Cornwallis. Mrs. Williams had an infant only two weeks old, her fourth son, and as the British army approached, she took her children and an old negro woman and sought refuge in the woods, where she remained until the army had crossed the river at the Shallow Ford of the Yadkin. (The profile picture depicts this flight ahead of the Army led by Lord Cornwallis). When she reached home she found that all of her supplies had been either taken by the enemy or destroyed. They were not as ruthless as many invaders because her home and negro quarters were not burned. We can hardly imagine what it must have been like to her to again be under her own roof. Her infant child named Nathaniel (after his paternal grandfather) had contracted a heavy cold while they were in the woods, and, not having even the barest necessities of life left, and her maiden home in Granville County, ow she was to make the journey was a most serious question. It tried her to the utmost but her brave heart did not quail, and after arranging for her two oldest boys and the negroes, she mounted a horse with her sick baby in her lap and her boy of two and half years behind her and alone made the long journey to Granville County in safety, much of the country being in forests and a great deal of it swarming with Tories, but she was unmolested and at last found the rest we can see she sadly needed. Her child was ruined by the exposure; the soft place in his head never closing, and although he lived to be twenty years old, was a constant care as long as he lived.

Find A Grave Memorial # 79376074.

Find A Grave Memorial # 86863087.