Milton F. Williams wrote,
"Robert Williams had one son, Richard Williams, born November 28, 1770, by his first wife, Elizabeth Dearman Williams; and by his second wife, Anne Shoebridge Williams, he was blessed with eight children, only three of whom survived:
1. Elizabeth, born April 28, 1778, who married April 26, 1804, Joseph Garretson, and bore five children.
2. Samuel (my grandfather), who was born March 1, 1779, and died November 4, 1856, aged 77 years.
3. John Shoebridge Williams, born July 31, 1790, near Beaufort, N.C., and died April 27, 1878, at Viola, Iowa, age 88, at the home of John Hampton.
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John Shoebridge Williams, son of
Robert and Anne Shoebridge Williams,
born near Beaufort, NC, July 31, 1790,
died April 27, 1878 at
John Hampton's in Viola, Iowa. |
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"The above three are the only ones of the eight children of Great Grandmother Anne Shoebridge Williams, who reached maturity and had descendant. I am fortunate in being able to quote from the “American Pioneer,” a magazine edited and published in 1842 and 1843 by John Shoebridge Williams, the son of Great Grandfather Robert. In the October number of this magazine, John Shoebridge Williams gives an account of his parentage and infancy, and his removal with his widowed mother to the “Northwest Territory,” so called, in the State of Ohio, the building of a log cabin in the woods, where the monotony of life for several of the first years of their residence was broken and enlivened by the howl of wild beasts. This cabin was occupied December 25, 1800. About two years later his half brother, Richard, who had been a sea captain for many years, abandoned his seafaring life at the age of 32 and came to their settlement. His brother, Richard, had lost his first wife, by whom he had a son, Robert, who died young. He had married again, and now had a daughter Elizabeth, nearly three years old. He had left his family at or near Wheeling, but the neighbors soon had a cabin erected for him near the meeting house, and a school was opened and taught by Richard.
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| 1790-1878 |
JOHN, SON OF ROBERT WILLIAMS, ADDS HIS MOTHER’S NAME
“Being subject to diverse inconveniences for want of distinction, I add to my name Shoebridge, in the 22nd of the 2nd month, 1820. John S. Williams.”
"This is a record from the Bible of John Shoebridge Williams, showing that at the age of 30 he required a distinguishing name and therefore took his middle name, Shoebridge."
