Biographical Sketch of William Williams
By Phil Norfleet
Before the Revolution, William Williams (1753-1831) resided in the Browns Creek area of what later became Union County SC. Although he was a stanch supporter of the Whig cause, Williams was a close neighbor of several men who later became prominent Loyalists, i. e., John Mayfield, Stephen Mayfield, David George and Zacharias Gibbs. His name is mentioned on the 1774 Survey Plat of David George. At the end of the War, in 1783, William Williams was one of the three men appointed to prepare the Inventory of the Personal Estate of John Mayfield of Browns Creek, deceased.
Biographical Summary
William Williams was born on 15 March 1753, however, the location and the names of his parents are unknown. He seems to have settled in South Carolina during the 1767-1768 time frame. The SC land grant records indicate that he was granted "two hundred acres in the Fork between Broad and Saludy Rivers bounded on a Branch of said Broad River commonly called & known by the name of Gabriel Browns Creek including Falls of said Creek and is bounded on all sides by vacant land." The survey for this land was dated 02 February 1768 and the Royal Patent was issued on 19 August 1768. [See SC Royal Land Grant Book 16, Page 589.] During the Revolution, on 16 October 1777, Williams married his wife, Lucy Horten (1761-1846), daughter of Daniel Horten of Lynches Creek, South Carolina. After the Revolution, Williams and his wife lived at Rocky Mount, Lancaster County and in the Kershaw District of SC. William Williams died on 20 September 1831. Lucy Williams died on 27 November 1846 at the home of her son, Joshua Williams, in Kershaw District SC.
Revolutionary War Service
A Revolutionary War, Federal pension application (No. W9166), dated 10 November 1846. was submitted on behalf of Lucy Williams by James R. Williams, her son-in-law. Extracts from this application are as follows:
" ... The said William Williams entered into the service of his country in the Fall of 1775 under the command of Captain Thomas Robins of Col. Brown's Regt. and served a tour of four months in what is commonly called the Snow Campaign. The second tour was in the Indian Campaign of three months. The third tour was in the Florida Campaign commencing in May 1776 and continued four months. ... Declarant [James R. Williams] cannot give the particulars of the Service of the said William Williams but in said Spring [of 1777] the said Williams was in service at Charleston as an officer and soldier when the enemy made the second attempt to take the city but failed, and continued constantly in service in the lower part of said State till after the Reduction of Charleston in May 1780. At which time, the said William Williams fled with other refugees and found General Sumter in North Carolina on the east side of the Catawba River as a volunteer mounted militia man in Capt. Joseph Jolly's Company. [Williams] continued in service in said Brigade almost constantly till the close of the War.
"But Declarant cannot now say what rank the said William Williams held in Gen. Sumter's Brigade. But that the said William Williams was engaged in the following battles, viz., at Charleston in 1777, also the Battle of Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock, Fish Dam Ford, Blackstocks, Cowpens, One Door [?] Bridge, and Eutaw Springs. He further says that the said Lucy Williams was married to her husband on the 16th day of October 1777 as will more fully appear from the Family Register of the said William Williams which is hereunto appended, and that the afore said William Williams died on the twentieth day of September 1831, and that the afore said Lucy Williams has remained a widow ever since that time, as will more fully appear by reference to the proof hereunder appended.
"Sworn to and subscribed on the day and year first above written.
"/S/ James R. Williams ... "