Word of mouth brings them in the mid-17th century from Great Yarmouth, where related documents are scarce, to Massachusetts thence Marlborough, where documentation is extensive. Lt. Abraham established a tavern mentioned frequently in the records that stayed in the family for at least a few generations. Colonel Abraham, who married several times, raised a regiment that served in the French and Indian War. One of his nine sons, only three of whom survived childhood, grew decidedly corpulent and died, age 69, one June. The Ephraim Williams of Williams College is another family altogether, unrelated.
Note: This family line would seem to resolve the puzzle of how Williams Barker Brooks got his unusual first name. After all, the three families — the Williams and the Rices they married and the Brookses the Rices in turn married — all lived in the right area of Massachusetts at the right time and intermarried at about the right time. Unfortunately, not quite the right time. It should have been Williams's father who married the Rice who had married the Williams, not Williams himself. Mystery therefore outstanding.
Sources: Thomas, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations; Ward, Ward Family; Felton, A Record of Upwards of Six Hundred Events
generation no. 1
William Williams, born 1597 in Great Yarmouth, died c 1676 in Watertown MA. Married Alice Raby circa 1625.
generation no. 2
Lieutenant Abraham Williams, born 11 September 1627 in Clerkenwell, London, died 29 December 1711 in Marlborough MA. Married 1657 Joanna Ward, daughter of William Ward, born 11 September 1628, died 8 December 1718 in Marlborough.
Source: Ward, Ward Family, pp. 10-11
generation no. 3
William Williams, born 1667 in Marlborough, died 30 August 1702. Married Elizabeth Larkin.
Source: Ward, Ward Family, pp. 10-11
generation no. 4
Colonel Abraham Williams, born 15 April 1695, died 10 July 1781 (age 86) in Marlborough. In 1755 commanded 3rd Regiment of Militia in Middlesex and Worcester MA. Married (1) 5 January 1715 to Prudence Howe, born 27 August 1689, died in childbirth 16 January 1724, daughter of Colonel Thomas Howe and Sarah Hosmer of Sudbury, (2) to Elizabeth Breck, daughter of the Rev. Breck, died 13 January 1728, and (3) 18 February 1730 to Elizabeth Boardman, who died 9 August 1775.
Source: Rice and Maynard, Marlborough Inscriptions
generation no. 5
Zepheniah Williams, born 16 January 1725 in Marlborough MA, died 27 March 1784 in Boylston MA. Farmer. Married Damraris.
generation no. 6
Relief (Leafy) Williams, born 17 June 1750, died 2 December 1835. Married Elijah Rice II.
Sources: Edmund Rice Association, www.edmund-rice.org; Early VR Middlesex Co. MA (published), Vital Records of Concord; Thomas, Mayflower Familiess; Ward, Rice Family; Brooks family records; Center Cemetery, Shrewsbury MA tombstone
To all people &c : — Know ye that I, Abraham Williams, sen. of the town of Marlboro' &c., being stricken in years, and not knowing how soon .my Lord will call, upon good considerations me moving, do give and grant as followeth: after my decease and the decease of my beloved consort, Joanna Williams, there shall be paid out of my estate, to my daughter, Elizabeth Beman, besides what she hath already had, three score pounds in New England money — unclipt money — it shall be for her and her children forever ; also I give to her and hers half my stock that shall then be found, except one yoak of oxen and feeding cattle, and one horse. The one-half of all the rest shall be theirs free forever. I also give to my daughter, Elizabeth Beman, and to hers half of my household goods, and to my son-in-law, Thomas Beman, thirty pounds passable money, and forty acres of land I bought of my brother, John Ward, [he was of Newton] and twenty six acres that lies adjoining it — in all three score and six acres : it shall be his forever after our decease, to stand good in fee simple. And because God hath taken away my eldest son and proper heir, and who never had any possession of my housing or lands, but as we traded together with corn and cattle, and so he had his part of all our income, and having left with me one only son, I reckon him my proper heir in his father's room ; and accordingly do give and grant to him, as first born, viz : Abraham Williams, together with his uncle, John Williams, all the rest of my estate undisposed of, viz : all my housing, with the land they stand upon and is about them on every side bounded and fenced, and all my lands and meadows abroad ; all my husbandry furniture, carpentering tools, and the rest of my stock — they shall be Abraham Williams his and John Williams his together, not to be parted, but improved for their subsistence together, unless extremity enforces a sale of a small piece thereof — all these gifts and grants shall be to them and their heirs forever. And further, concerning William Ripley, whom we have brought up from a child ; his time is not long to stay on strict terms — then nine pounds will be due him, one he hath had already — let his due be paid out of the whole estate — if he will stay with Abraham and John for reasonable wages by the year, three or four years, then I give to him. for his own forever, to settle on, twenty acres of land at Rock patch, with the meadow to it, next to my son Beman's. If he like not that, he shall have twenty acres at the west end of Crane hill, and three acres of meadow at Cedar meadow above the Island next to Barns. And if not that, he must go.
Source: Middlesex deeds, at Cambridge MA, Book 16, p. 82
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