WILLIAMS, Ephraim, soldier, born in Newton, Massachusetts, 24 February, 1715; died near Lake George, New York, 8 September, 1755. In early years he was a sailor, and made several voyages to Europe ; but he afterward joined the army and served in Canada in the war of 1740-'8 against the French, attaining the rank of captain. In 1750 the government of Massachusetts granted him 200 acres of land in the present townships of Adams and Williamstown, upon which, in the following year, he erected Fort Massachusetts, and was appointed commander of the whole line of frontier posts west of Connecticut river. In 1755, on the renewal of the war between France and England, he led a regiment of Massachusetts troops to join Sir William Johnson, who was on his way to invade Canada. At Albany, under a presentiment of early death, he made a will leaving the bulk of his landed and other prosperity to found a free school at Williamstown. On 8 September, 1755, at the head of 1,200 men, while making a reconnoissance of Baron Dieskau's advancing force, he fell into an ambuscade of the enemy near the head of Lake George, and, at the first volley, was shot through the head. The funds that he left were allowed to accumulate for thirty years, when a free school was incorporated. The institution was afterward converted into a college, the first commencement of which was held on 2 September, 1795, when seventy-seven students were present, four of whom graduated. Colonel Williams never married. In 1854 the alumni of Williams erected a monument (consisting of a huge boulder) to him near Lake George, on the spot where he fell. See illustration on preceding page. --Ephraim's brother, Thomas, physician, born in Newton, Massachusetts, 1 April, 1718; died in Deerfield, Massachusetts, 28 September, 1775, studied medicine in Boston, and settled in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1739. In 1743 he was appointed surgeon in the army in the projected expedition into Canada, which failed to set out. He was afterward surgeon of the chain of forts that extended from Fort Drummer, Vermont, to Fort Massachusetts at Hoosac or Adams, suffering much hardship and danger in visiting these posts, which were exposed to the onslaughts of the Indians. He was a surgeon in the army under Sir William Johnson at Lake George in 1755, and present at the skirmish on 8 September of that year in which his brother, Colonel Ephraim, was killed. Dr. Williams became lieutenant-colonel in 1756, serving on Lake George. His letters during that campaign are interesting and faithful histories of its events, and furnish many medical and military facts. When he resumed practice he was the only surgeon in his neighborhood, and was frequently called to Vermont and New Hampshire. He was a justice of the peace, judge of the court of common pleas and of probate, town-clerk for many years, and held many minor civil offices, he educated several students in the profession of medicine, and left a large and valuable library.