If you’d like to learn more about this prominent Colonial citizen – who was also cousin to Williams College founder Ephraim Williams, and executor of Ephraim's complicated estate – the Massachusetts Historical Society holds a collection of his papers from 1728-1785.
As noted in their abstract, Williams was a commander of a Hampshire County regiment responsible for the defense of Western Mass. during King George's and the French and Indian Wars. In fact, our other Israel Williams artifact is from the French and Indian war. We’ll show what that looks like later in the week, and how this river god fell from grace a decade later (in a big way), so come back!