William Williams

William Williams was born in 1731 in Lebanon, Connecticut, graduated from Harvard, and became a merchant in his hometown. He served for many years in the colonial and state assemblies and, through his marriage to a daughter of Governor Jonathan Trumbull, stood close to Connecticut's wartime leadership. He took his seat in the Continental Congress in July 1776, after the vote on independence, and signed the engrossed Declaration. During the war he worked at home to raise money, supplies, and recruits, sometimes contributing from his own means. After independence he remained in state office and sat in the Connecticut convention that ratified the Constitution. Williams was a devout Congregationalist and a deacon in the church at Lebanon. He died in 1811, on the thirty-fifth anniversary of the August signing.

See also: Signers of the Declaration · Roger Sherman · Samuel Huntington · Oliver Wolcott