WILLIAMSON, William Durkee, historian, born in Canterbury, Connecticut, 31 July, 1779; died in Bangor, Maine, 27 May, 1846. He removed with his father in boyhood to Amherst, Massachusetts, and entered Williams college, but was graduated at Brown in 1804. He studied law in Amherst, and began to practise in Bangor, Maine, in 1807. Afterward he served as attorney for Hancock county in 1808-'16, and as a member of the Massachusetts senate in 1816-'20. On the separation of Maine from that state in 1820 he was the president of its first state senate, and he thus became acting governor on the resignation of Governor William King. He was then elected to congress as a Democrat, and served in 1821-'3. In 1824-'40 he was probate judge for his county, and in 1838-'41 He was a bank commissioner. Governor Williamson was for some time president of the Bangor bank, and a member of several historical and literary societies. Besides contributions to the " American Quarterly Register" and to the "Collections" of the Massachusetts historical society, he published a valuable "History of the State of Maine, from its First Discovery to the Separation" (2 vols., Hallowell, 1832" 2d ed., enlarged, 1839).