Thomas Richard Williams, Free Settler "Ganges" 1841

Thomas Williams was a mysterious man- known as a wandering Jew or Spaniard. His birth date was claimed to be anywhere from 1893-1803- he is recorded on his death certificate as 103. He is believed to have actually been born in London in 1803 to Solomon Williams (originally from County Wicklow) and Miss Mary Lee the sister of Professor Samuel Lee of Cambridge a leading member of the Hebrew Christian Movement. He went with the Jewish evangelist Joseph Wolff to the Holy Land in 1821 where he met and married his wife. They returned with Joseph Wolff to the British Isles and Thomas and his wife settled with his wife's relatives from Sussex in Kilmagig, Wicklow Ireland. He later returned to the Holy Land where he settled in the holy city of Safed where he studied Jewish mysticism until the earthquake of 1837. He returned to Wicklow and in 1841 with his family they moved to Western Australia. He arrived on the "Ganges" in 1841. He is believed to have possessed some Hebrew manuscripts which he later gave to the Spanish monks at New Norcia before his death in 1892. Though outwardly a Protestant he was to die in the Catholic home of his son John Williams of Willow Gulli Station at Northampton. The family tell a story of Thomas apprehending a thief in old age saying "I would have got away if it hadn't been for that Spanish bastard". In later years he travelled between the homes of his children and grandchildren and was a much beloved Patriarch.