Elisha Williams was born on August 29, 1773 in Pomfret, Connecticut, one of thirteen children of Ebenezer Williams, a colonel in the Revolutionary militia, and Jerusha (Porter) Williams. He was a descendant in the fifth generation of Robert Williams of Roxbury. As his father died when he was very young, he was brought up under the guardianship of Capt. Seth Grosvenor of Pomfret, Connecticut.
He studied law with Judge Tapping Reeve at Litchfield, Connecticut, and under Chief Justice Ambrose Spencer at Hudson, New York.
He was admitted to the bar in 1793. In the same year he began the practice of the law at Spencertown, New York, moving to Hudson seven years later.
He soon forged to the front rank among up-state lawyers and crossed swords on many occasions with the outstanding leaders of the state bar, including Thomas Addis Emmet, Ambrose Spencer, William W. Van Ness, and his political opponent, Martin Van Buren, whose solid analytical talents were well matched against the brilliant oratorical gifts of Williams.
In 1813 he opposed taxation for carrying on an "unjust and unnecessary" war, declaring, "I will not furnish the administration with the means for carrying on this war; I would starve them into peace with all my heart".
An associate of rich Federalists of conservative leanings, such as Jacob Rutsen van Rensselaer and others whom he numbered among his clients, he took a strongly anti-democratic stand in the Constitutional Convention of 1821, which he attended as a delegate.
He also served as president of the Bank of Columbia at Hudson for several years. His reputation suffered in 1820, when he testified before a legislative inquiry that he had received payments from the Bank of America for his services in securing its charter in 1812-13.
In 1815 he founded the town of Waterloo, Seneca County, whither he removed with his family fifteen years later on account of poor health.
He fervently opposed the extension of the franchise to non-freeholders, and, pointing to the French Revolution, warned that political democracy would be followed by an overthrow of the propertied class. Quoting Jefferson to the effect that "great cities were upon the body politic great sores, " he concluded that the urban population could not be counted on in times of crisis. Van Buren then retorted that a false construction had been placed upon Jefferson's views. Williams' devotion to property rights is best evidenced by the large fortune he was able to accumulate in the practice of the law at Hudson and through judicious investments, principally in Seneca County real estate; he left about a quarter of a million dollars at his death.
Williams was elected a member of the Assembly in 1800 for Columbia County, which he represented at nine other sessions of that body, including the critical war period (1812 - 15) and extending down to 1828.
He was tall and dignified in bearing and possessed of brilliant oratorical powers. James Kent, before whom he had frequently tried cases at the circuit, was impressed with his abilities as a trial lawyer, by what he called his "sagacity and judgment in the examination of witnesses, " and "his forcible, pithy, argumentative, and singularly attractive" addresses, which were heightened by his language, voice, and commanding person.
Quotes from others about the person
In The Poet at the Breakfast Table Oliver Wendell Holmes relates that he once asked Gulian C. Verplanck: "Who, on the whole, seemed to you the most considerable person you ever met?" and was without hesitation answered: "Elisha Williams. "
In 1795 Williams married Lucia Grosvenor, a daughter of his former guardian, by whom he had five children.
