Williams, Stephen (I), Dd

Williams, Stephen (I), D.D.

a Congregational minister, son of the Rev. John Williams of Deerfield, Mass., was born May 14. 1693. When in his eleventh year, he was taken captive by the Indians, with all his father's family except one brother, and subjected to great suffering on the journey to Canada. Having been separated from the rest of the family, he did not meet any of them again for fourteen months. He was released at Quebec through the intercession of friends in New England, and arrived in Boston, Mass., Nov. 21, 1705, nearly twenty-one months from the beginning of his captivity. In 1713 he graduated at Harvard College, and then taught school at Hadley for one year. After preaching at Longmeadow for about two years, he was ordained there Oct. 17, 1716. During three campaigns he served as chaplain in the army at Cape Breton, in 1745, under Sir William Pepperell; went to Lake George in 1755, under Sir William Johnson; and in the year following was under General Winslow. He was an important agent in establishing the mission in 1734 among the Housatonic Indians in Stockbridge. He died June 10, 1782. His only publication was A Sermon at the Ordination of John Keep (1772). See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 1, 284.