♂George Williams

George Williams (4 September 1784 – 21 March 1861) was an Irish-born farmer who settled in New Jersey and then, in 1830, in Wabash County, Illinois. He was the third great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Sarah Williams (1816–1885).

Ireland and emigration

He was born in Ireland on 4 September 1784. His parents are not known, and no record of his life in Ireland has been found. His daughter Sarah’s obituary, published in 1885, calls him “George Williams, Esq., who came from Ireland and settled in New Brunswick, N. J., when this daughter was but two years old”; a county history published in 1883 puts her age at the crossing at one year. The obituary adds that he “removed to Wabash county in 1830”. The Middlesex County court papers of a George Williams, a native of Ireland, naturalized at New Brunswick on 15 September 1826 may be his: the witness swore that he had lived in the United States since July 1820 and in New Jersey for the past year, which fits that account. The papers give no age, Irish county or family, and the name is a common one, so the identification is unproven. His wife was Margaret. In December 1835, by then of Wabash County, he and “Margaret his wife” sold a lot in the city of New Brunswick to Samuel Holcomb of that city; the deed was recorded in Somerset County in January 1839. It is the only record found that names her. A cemetery memorial gives Sarah’s mother the same name, while another compiled tree calls George’s wife Ann and cites no record. No wife was living in his household in 1850 or 1860. The family record also names a second daughter, Catherine, of whom nothing more is known.

Later life and death

The census of 28 November 1850 found him in Wabash County, aged 66, a farmer heading his own household, with real estate valued at $1,500. Six other people named Williams lived with him: Robert, 37, born in Ireland; John, 26, born in New Jersey; and four younger members born in Illinois. That census does not state how anyone in a household was related to its head, so the six cannot all be called his children on its word alone, but their birthplaces trace the family’s route from Ireland through New Jersey to Illinois. By 14 June 1860 he no longer headed a household: the census of Freindsville Precinct lists him, aged 74, with personal estate of $4,000, in the home of his daughter Sarah and her husband, the merchant William R. Wilkinson. He died on 21 March 1861, nine months later. His Find a Grave memorial places his burial in the White-Williams Family Cemetery at Mount Carmel, Wabash County.