William Williams III was born on May 14, 1711 in a section of Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, that later became the town of Weston. The first of 10 children born to the Reverend William Williams and Hannah Stoddard Williams, William graduated from Harvard College in 1729. Known as Bill to family and friends, Williams at first seemed destined to be a physician but a military career appealed to him more. He served in a campaign of 1739 against the Spanish in St. Augustine Florida. Promoted to Ensign under Admiral Vernon, Bill survived the Caribbean campaign including the Battle of Cartagena in 1741, unlike most other New Englanders who also served there. On his return, he bought property in Deerfield, Massachusetts in about 1743 but frequent deployments meant he was rarely there. Bill Williams served in King George's War (1744-1748) and the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and attained the rank of Colonel. He spent a brief period in Deerfield from about 1751-53 where he was a justice of the peace, served as a town selectman, and kept a store where he earned a small commission supplying troops as a subcommisary. Around 1753, Colonel Williams moved with his second wife, Sarah Wells Williams of Deerfield, to Pontosuc, now Pittsfield, Massachusetts. where he later became known as a strong Loyalist in common with other members of the Williams family. Colonel William Williams died in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1785.
Colonel Williams acquired Calab Sharp, also known as Sharp Caleb, from Sharp's enslaver, Colonel Oliver Partridge. An entry in Williams' daybook records that Williams credited Colonel Oliver Partridge of Hatfield £500 "By his Negro Sharp" on February 16, 1750/1. Sharp appeared frequently in William Williams' daybook as both a debtor and a creditor on his own account. Entries from the Deerfield store accounts of Elijah Williams and surviving account books from other Deerfield residents included charges to William Williams for mending "yr negroes" and for purchasing "yr negros pumps." A skilled millwright and carpenter, Calab Sharp was a free man by the later 1750s and settled in the part of Deerfield that later became the town of Conway. William Williams also rented Prince, who was enslaved by Joseph Barnard. Williams' daybook includes many entries in the hand of his clerk, John Bush, a free African American man originally from Shrewsbury who served in the militia during King George's and as an army clerk in French and Indian War. Bush was a talented powder horn carver with a distinctive calligraphic style. He was captured at Fort William Henry and died en route to France as a prisoner of war.
Colonel William Williams married Miriam Tyler in 1733; the couple had no children and Miriam died in 1748. Williams remarried Sarah Wells of Deerfield shortly before moving to Pontoosuc. They had five children, including William Williams who became a military surgeon and died of smallpox while serving in New York in 1760. The horn John Bush carved for him is now in the collections of Historic Deerfield, Inc.
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