Had three children.spouse: Boice, James Edgar (1858 - )
Had four children, the first three being born in Atwood, Michigan. They lived in Canon City, Colorado in the early 1900's.spouse: Byers, Eugene (1859 - >1910)
Had one child.spouse: Cross, Hattie (>1869 - )
Robert Richmond Wilkinson was a State Senator from Michigan for two years. He served in the Civil War and was an ordained Baptist minister. They resided in Canon City, Colorado in the early 1900's.spouse: Sanford, Eliza (1842 - 1892)
Had two children.spouse: Cross, Permelia (>1865 - )
WILLIAM I, called The Conqueror (1027-87), first Norman king of England (1066-87), who has been called one of the first modern kings and is generally regarded as one of the outstanding figures in western European history. Born in Falaise, France, William was the illegitimate son of Robert I, Duke of Normandy (1010?-35), and Arletta (fl. 1025-40), a tanner's daughter, and he is therefore sometimes called William the Bastard.spouse: Flanders, Matilda of (1032 - 1083)Upon the death of his father, the Norman nobles, honoring their promise to Robert, accepted William as his successor. Rebellion against the young duke broke out almost immediately, however, and his position did not become secure until 1047 when, with the aid of Henry I, King of France, he won a decisive victory over a rebel force near Caen. During a visit in 1051 to his childless cousin, Edward the Confessor, King of England, William is said to have obtained Edward's agreement that he should succeed to the English throne. In 1053, defying a papal ban, William married Matilda of Flanders (1031?-83), daughter of Baldwin V (1012-66), Count of Flanders and a descendant of King Alfred the Great, thereby strengthening his claim to the crown of England. Henry I, fearing the strong bond between Normandy and Flanders resulting from the marriage, attempted in 1054 and again in 1058 to crush the powerful duke, but on both occasions William defeated the French king's forces.
Conquest of England. About 1064, the powerful English noble, Harold, Earl of Wessex, was shipwrecked on the Norman coast and taken prisoner by William. He secured his release by swearing to support William's claim to the English throne. When King Edward died, however, the witenagemot (royal council) elected Harold king. Determined to make good his claim, William secured the sanction of Pope Alexander II (r. 1061-73) for a Norman invasion of England. The duke and his army landed at Pevensey on Sept. 28, 1066. On October 14, the Normans defeated the English forces at the celebrated Battle of Hastings, in which Harold was slain. William then proceeded to London, crushing the resistance he encountered on the way. On Christmas Day he was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey. The English did not accept foreign rule without a struggle. William met the opposition, which was particularly violent in the north and west, with strong measures; he was responsible for the devastation of great areas of the country, particularly in Yorkshire, where Danish forces had arrived to aid the Saxon rebels. By 1070 the Norman conquest of England was complete. William invaded Scotland in 1072 and forced the Scottish king Malcolm III MacDuncan (1031?-93) to pay him homage. During the succeeding years the Conqueror crushed insurrections among his Norman followers, including that incited in 1075 by Ralph de Guader (fl. 1066-98), 1st Earl of Norfolk, and Roger Fitzwilliam (fl. 1071-75), Earl of Hereford, and a series of uprisings in Normandy led by his eldest son, Robert (c. 1054-1134), who later became Robert II, Duke of Normandy.
His Achievements. One feature of William's reign as king was his reorganization of the English feudal and administrative systems. He dissolved the great earldoms, which had enjoyed virtual independence under his Anglo-Saxon predecessors, and distributed the lands confiscated from the English to his trusted Norman followers. He introduced the Continental system of feudalism; by the Oath of Salisbury of 1086 all landlords swore allegiance to William, thus establishing the precedent that a vassal's loyalty to the king overrode his fealty to his immediate lord. The feudal lords were compelled to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the local courts, which William retained along with many other Anglo-Saxon institutions. The ecclesiastical and secular courts were separated, and the power of the papacy in English affairs was curtailed. Another accomplishment was the economic survey undertaken and incorporated in the Domesday Book in 1086. In 1087, during a campaign against King Philip I of France, William burned the town of Mantes (now Mantes-la-Jolie). William's horse fell in the vicinity of Mantes, fatally injuring him. He died in Rouen on September 7 and was buried at Caen in Saint Stephen's, one of the abbeys he and Matilda had founded at the time of their marriage as penance for their defiance of the pope. William was succeeded by his third-born son, William II.
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William the Lion (1143-1214), king of Scotland (1165-1214). He was a grandson of King David I and the brother of Malcolm IV, whom he succeeded. After a quarrel with King Henry II of England, William concluded an alliance between Scotland and France in 1168. In 1173, with King Louis VII of France, he aided Henry's sons in their unsuccessful rebellion against their father. William invaded Northumberland, and the next year, while raiding the countryside near Alnwick, he was captured by the English, who took him to Normandy. He was able to obtain his freedom only by assenting to the Treaty of Falaise, which acknowledged Henry as overlord of Scotland. In 1188 William secured a papal bull guaranteeing the independence of the Scottish church from that of England, and in 1189 Henry's son Richard, who had succeeded him as king, annulled the Treaty of Falaise, surrendering all claims to suzerainty over Scotland in return for a large payment. William was succeeded by his son, Alexander II.spouse: Beaumont, Ermengardge of (>1160 - )
WILLIAM II, called Rufus (1060?-1100), King of England (1087-1100), who extended his power into Normandy and Scotland. He was the third son of William the Conqueror, King of England, who on his deathbed named him as his successor in England, leaving the duchy of Normandy to his eldest son, Robert (1054?-1134). William Rufus, as he was known because of his ruddy complexion, was crowned in Westminster Abbey in 1087. The following year William's uncle Odo, bishop of Bayeux (1036?-97), led a rebellion of Norman barons who sought to unseat him in favor of Robert. William's English subjects, believing his promises of less oppressive taxation and more liberal laws, helped him quell the revolt. The king, despite his promises, continued to pursue a domestic policy that was harsh and venal.William invaded Normandy in 1089, 1091, and 1094, winning some concessions from his brother Robert II, duke of Normandy, each time. He forced the Scottish king Malcolm III MacDuncan (1031?-93) to pay him homage and in 1092 seized the city of Carlisle and other areas claimed by Malcolm in Cumberland and Westmorland. In 1096 Robert mortgaged Normandy to William for funds to finance a Crusade. William then fought to recapture lands his brother had lost as duke of Normandy and returned the county of Maine to the rule of the duchy.
After the death in 1089 of Lanfranc, the archbishop of Canterbury, William delayed naming a successor. He held open vacant bishoprics and enriched himself with church monies, incurring the displeasure of many ecclesiastics. In 1093 he selected Anselm, Abbot of Bec (see Anselm, Saint), as the new archbishop, but they quarreled over William's authority to control church appointments. William was killed on Aug. 2, 1100, while on a hunting trip in the New Forest in Hampshire. It is not known whether the slaying, which is traditionally ascribed to a Norman named Walter Tirel (d. after 1100), was accidental or intentional. William was buried at Winchester; he never married and had no children. His younger brother succeeded to the throne as King Henry I.
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William III (of England, Scotland and Ireland), called William of Orange (1650-1702), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1689-1702), and stadtholder of the Netherlands (1672-1702), who helped form the Grand Alliance and led England in its so-called Glorious Revolution.spouse: Mary, ? II, Queen of England (1662 - 1694)Born on November 14, 1650, in The Hague, Holland, William was the posthumous son of William II, prince of Orange and stadtholder of the Netherlands, and Mary, eldest daughter of the English king Charles I. In 1672, after the invasion of the Netherlands by the French king Louis XIV, the leadership of Jan De Witt, grand pensionary of Holland, was repudiated, and William was elected stadtholder, captain-general, and admiral. William fought the French with great resolution, even cutting (1673) dikes around Amsterdam to flood the surrounding countryside and halt the advancing French armies. The Dutch suffered severe reverses in subsequent battles. As a result of William's superior diplomacy, however, which also included the strengthening of ties with England by his marriage (1677) to the English princess Mary (eldest daughter of his uncle, James, duke of York, later King James II), Louis XIV agreed to terminate the war on terms favorable to the Dutch.
After the accession (1685) of James II there was fear in England that the king's policies were directed toward restoring the power of the Roman Catholic church. In July 1688, James's principal opponents secretly invited William, who was Europe's leading Protestant statesman, to bring an army of liberation to England. William and a force totaling about 15,000 men landed at Torbay on November 5, 1688. Most of the English nobility declared for William, and James fled to France. William accepted the Declaration of Rights passed by the Convention Parliament, which met on January 22, 1689, and on February 13, William and Mary were proclaimed joint sovereigns of England.
Shortly after the conclusion of this Glorious Revolution, the Scottish parliament accepted the new rulers. Predominantly Catholic Ireland, however, remained loyal to the deposed king and had to be taken by force. In 1690 William led the army that defeated James and his Irish partisans at the Battle of the Boyne (see Boyne, Battle of the). William's reign continued to be marked by abortive Jacobite plots to restore James to the throne. After the death of Mary in 1694, William ruled alone.
In 1689, in pursuit of containing France, William had brought England into the League of Augsburg, thereafter known as the Grand Alliance. For the next eight years he was embroiled in wars on the Continent. He managed by skillful diplomacy to hold the alliance together and, under the terms of the Peace of Ryswick, Louis XIV of France surrendered (1697) much of the territory he had won and recognized William as England's rightful king. See Ryswick, Peace of.
At home William manifested virtually none of the acumen he displayed in foreign affairs. Although he was liberal in some things, it was not he but Parliament, to which he was often opposed, that brought about the reforms effected during his reign, such as the passing of the Bill of Rights, the establishment of the Bank of England, the introduction of ministerial responsibility in government, and the encouragement of a free press.
In 1701 William headed the second Grand Alliance, which became involved in the so-called War of the Spanish Succession. He died on March 19, 1702, before he could take an active part in the struggle. His wife's sister, Queen Anne, succeeded to the throne.
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William IV (1765-1837), king of Great Britain and Ireland (1830-37) and king of Hannover (1830-37), during whose reign the first Reform Bill was passed.spouse: Saxe-Meiningen, Adelaide of (1792 - 1849)William was born August 21, 1765, in London. The third son of King George III and younger brother of George IV, he entered the British navy in 1779, remaining in its service until 1787. He was made duke of Clarence in 1789. About 1791 he formed a liaison with the Irish actor Dorothea Jordon, by whom he subsequently had ten children. In 1818, after he unexpectedly came into the line of succession to the throne, he married a German princess, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, by whom he had two daughters, both of whom died in infancy. He became king in 1830, succeeding his brother.
Warmhearted and well intentioned but rather eccentric, William had virtually no political judgment. The major event of his reign was the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832, which he was persuaded to support by his prime minister, Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey; it was enacted after William finally agreed to create, if necessary, a sufficient number of new peers to overcome the majority opposed to the bill in the House of Lords (see Reform Bills). The abolition of colonial slavery (1833), the reform of the poor laws (1834), and the Municipal Reform Act (1835) followed the 1832 reform of Parliament. William was the last British ruler to try to force parliamentary acceptance of an unpopular ministry, namely the one headed by Sir Robert Peel in 1834-35. William was succeeded to the British throne by his niece Victoria. The throne of Hannover was inherited by his brother Ernest Augustus.
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Alexander and his wife, Catherine, had six children, names, genders, unknown. He was a merchant.spouse: Kremer, Catherine (>1819 - )
ANSON P. WILLIAMS was the first husband of Imogene Augusta Gregory, and the second husband of her sister, Irene Ervilla Bement Gregory. (Source: Chronicles of the Bement Family in America; 1928, p. 220)spouse: Gregory, Imogene Augusta (1856 - 1884)
Joseph Williams enrolled as a drummer in Captain Isaac Halsey's Company, Eastern Battalion, Morris County, NJ. Put on march to Elizabethtown Point, July 3, 1776; Militia, August 19, 1776; served as an officer in the Revolutionary War under General George Washington.spouse: Thompson, Rachel (1746 - 1777)(History of Lycoming Co., PA, 1892) (DAR Application of Mary Brown (Bennett) Smith, 1988)
Joseph was a Vice President with John Wanamaker + Co., (Department Store) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had no issue.spouse: Campbell, Sarah (1860 - 1937)
Joseph Williams was born near Morristown, New Jersey, in October 1770. His father was a native of New Jersey and an officer in the Revolutionary War under General George Washington. He removed from Morris County, NJ, and settled near Danville, Montour Co., PA, where he remained until his death.spouse: Sutton, Letitia (1774 - 1862)He was a surveyor and learned his profession from William Ellis, of Muney, PA. He came to Lycoming County when a young man, and in 1790 was married to Letitia Sutton, daughter of Amariah Sutton, who was born August 20, 1774. Letitia and her parents were driven from their homes during the "Great Runaway". They took refuge at Forts Freeland and Augusta, and while at the latter, a captive Indian was brought before them and his hair was severely pulled by a woman whose relatives his savage tribe had doubtless wronged. Amariah Sutton took out a land warrent which is now embraced in the Walker and Rose farm, near Williamsport, which he cleared of timber and gave a part of it to his brother-in-law and daughter, Letitia.
Joseph Williams followed surveying in connection with farming. He helped to lay out the borough of Williamsport, Lycoming Co., PA, and did much surveying in the surrounding counties. He was a member of the Masonic order, belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was a Whig in politics.
History of Lycoming Co., PA 1892
In addition to raising two children of their own, Martha and Adam also took in and raised William A. Gandy, the son of her older sister, after her early death. Martha died at 105 years of age.spouse: Brown, Adam Comegest (1832 - 1913)
Rachel Williams married John Smith in 1818 and had three children with him. He was elected Judge.spouse: Smith, John (~1794 - 1884)
Samuel Norris Williams was Mayor of Williamsport, Pennsylvania.spouse: Foresman, Mary Alice (1840 - 1915)
Amelia J. Williamson (1846-1905) married Gillette V. Stevenson (1840-1903). He was a merchant, and the second mayor of the village of Hartwell, Ohio, near Cincinnati in Hamilton Co., after its incorporation (1881-1885). He fought in the civil war in the 7th Indiana regiment.spouse: Stevenson, Gillette Vernor (1840 - 1903)The father of Gillette Stevenson and Mary T. Stevenson Werts, Thomas Stevenson (born 1815) was a cooper. He married Eliza Abraham (1816 OH-1881 IN), daughter of George Abraham (1780 NJ-1858 IN) and Mary Cleaver. Gillette Stevenson's brother, Thomas Stevenson, Jr. (1854-1913) married Elizabeth Emmert and is associated with the Emmert family mills in Decatur Co., Indiana. Another brother, William Creighton 'Duffy' Stevenson (1846-1912) was a judge in Indianapolis. He married Martha J. 'Mattie" Lemon (1843-1925). (Source: Daniel Stevenson, Philadelphia, PA; June 1999)
Reverend I. D. Williamson (1807-1876) received a doctor of Divinity degree from Norwich University in Vermont. He is the author of: "Rudiments of Theological Science", "Exposition and Defense of Universalism", "Argument for Christianity", and "Endless Misery Examined and Refuted". He was a Unitarian Universalist minister. He was a great-great-great-grandson of Timothy Williamson, an early settler of Marshfield, Massachusetts who was killed in King Philip's War in 1676.spouse: Guernsey, Adeline Eliza (1809 - 1891)Rev. Williamson was the author of a few books. He was a Unitarian Universalist minister and was originally from Pomfret, VT and received a degree from Norwich University in Vermont. Then he moved to the Cincinnati area. His family is chronicled in the "Descendants of Timothy Williamson" article by Grace Williamson Edes in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Some of his relatives fought in the civil war. He had only two sons, one of which committed suicide at the age of 16.
Amelia Williamson, his youngest daughter, married Gillette Stevenson. Her sister, Orphia Williamson, married John Simon Cantwell. Their daughter Georgia Cantwell married Walter A. Hill and had six children, one of which was John Cantwell Hill who lived in Chicago. The oldest daughter of Rev. Williamson was Maria Williamson who married Francis Marion Moore.
His brother-in-law, James Werts (1837-1918) served with the 18th and the 49th Regiments of Indiana Infantry, and, briefly with the 22nd Iowa Volunteers (from Jul 9, 1861-August 18, 1864). James Werts married Mary Tabitha Stevenson (1842-1910), Nov. 9, 1865 in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. (Source: Daniel Stevenson, Philadelphia, PA; June 1999)
FRED GEORGE WILSON was adopted, unknown if it was a formal adoption, by his mother's second Husband, George Joseph Reitz after 1900 and his name was then changed to Fred George Reitz. He later married and had three children. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge at Park Manor, Illinois; and a member of the Salvation Army. He worked as a clerk for the Illinois Central at 63rd and South Indiana Avenue in Chicago. He died on 7 June 1952 in a sanatorium in Libertyville, Illinois after a debilitating stroke. (Source: James Arthur Reitz, July 1997)spouse: Spiears, Elizabeth Letham (1889 - 1968)
RUFUS BUDD BEMENT WILSON appears to be his legal name of record at the time of his birth, although his death certificate and other later family records indicate that his name was Robert Bement Wilson. It further appeared that he was raised by the name of Robert Bement, having dropped the "Wilson" name for an unknown reason, although his children were all born with the "Wilson" surname. The original Bement Chronicles, based on information supplied by his family to the compiler in 1913, indicated his birth name to be Rufus Budd Bement Wilson with no mention of the name Robert Bement Wilson. (Source: Letter to J. Granville Leach of 16 Sept 1913 from Mrs. Mary Jane (Bement) Ames Pickett of Clyde, Ohio).spouse: Raab, Ada H. (1866 - 1943)Rufus "Robert" was somewhat of an enigma as it is not known what his name really was. In a letter written to him by his sister on the birth of his son, she suggests that the boy be named Robbie. His death certificate also lists him as Robert B. Bement. His true name is probably Robert Bement Wilson. Legal records have him listed as R. B. Wilson. After being raised all of his life by the Bement family, and probably never known his father, he preferred to use the name Bement. By calling himself simply R. B. Bement, he was in essence naming himself after his grandfather, whom he undoubtedly adored.
He divorced form Ada Raab before 1893 having one child with her, Fred George Wilson. Ada Raab married (2) George Joseph Reitz after 1900 and Fred George Wilson was adopted, unknown if it was a formal adoption, and Fred George Wilson's name was then changed to Fred George Reitz. Details of his parents' and why he took, or was given, the name of his stepfather are unknown. He was known the rest of his life at Fred George Reitz.
He attended school in Clyde, Ohio and then went west to St. Louis, Missouri, where he engaged in the grocery business, moving later to Misoula, Montana where he was married. He moved to California around 1931and was in business there as a grocer for about six years until his health failed, and he retired.
(Source: James Arthur Reitz, July 1997)