Background
William D. Williamson was born on July 31, 1779, in Canterbury, Connecticut, the eldest son of George Williamson and Mary Foster, and a descendant of Timothy Williamson who was in Plymouth Colony as early as 1643.
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The History of the State of Maine: From Its First Discovery, A. D. 1602, to the Separation, A. D. 1820, Inclusive. With an Appendix and General Index
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William Durkee Williamson
Edit ProfileEducation
His early education was in the common schools of Canterbury and of Amherst, Massachusetts, to which the family moved in 1793. He taught for some time in a private school in Pittstown, New York, and then in a public school in Amherst, while continuing his studies privately and at Deerfield Academy.
In October 1800 he entered Williams College, meanwhile teaching school during the winters. Resenting what he considered a Federalist partisanship that excluded him, a Democrat, from taking part in a Junior exhibition, he transferred in 1804 to Brown, where he graduated in September of the same year.
He then took up the study of law in the office of S. F. Dickinson of Amherst, continuing it with Samuel Thatcher and Joseph McGaw of Bangor. In the latter place he began the practice of law in 1807.
Career
In January 1808 he was commissioned attorney-general for Hancock County. He lost the office in 1809, but, since he was the most active Democratic lawyer in the county, the governor reappointed him in 1811. He occupied the position until 1816, when he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate. For three years he was chairman of the committee on eastern lands.
From 1809 to 1820 he was postmaster at Bangor. When the separation of Maine from Massachusetts, of which he was an ardent advocate, took place in 1820, he became the first senator from Penobscot County to the state Senate, and succeeded John Chandler as president of that body when the latter was elected to the national Senate.
After Gov. William King resigned, Williamson was acting governor from May 28 to December 5, 1821, when he resigned to take the seat in Congress to which he had been elected the preceding September. He served from March 4, 1821, to March 3, 1823. He was not reelected.
Gov. Albion K. Parris appointed him judge of probate for Penobscot County in 1824. He occupied this position until 1840, when, by an amendment to the state constitution which limited the tenure of judicial offices, he was compelled to retire. In 1834 and 1839 he was commissioner to examine the banks of Maine. In 1840 he was chairman of a commission of the Maine State Prison. He was also president of the Peoples' Bank of Bangor.
The great labor of his life, for which he began gathering materials in 1817, was his History of the State of Maine, published in two volumes in 1832 and reissued in 1839. Heavy in style and in need of thorough revision in the light of much material not available to the author, the volumes yet remain an indispensable work in Maine history. Williamson continued to collect materials on history and biography until his death, but, except for a few contributions to the American Quarterly Register, 1840 - 1843, and to the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, he published little. Some of his manuscripts have been published in the Bangor Historical Magazine (July 1885 - June 1887).
William D. Williamson died on May 27, 1846 in Bangor, Maine.
Achievements
Works
book
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The History of the State of Maine: From Its First Discovery, A. D. 1602, to the Separation, A. D. 1820, Inclusive. With an Appendix and General Index
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
-
The History of the State of Maine: From Its First Discovery, A. D. 1602, to the Separation, A. D. 1820, Inclusive. With an Appendix and General Index
Membership
William D. Williamson was an original member of the Maine Historical Society.
William Durkee Williamson also was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives
from Maine's 4th district and of the Massachusetts Senate.
Connections
On June 10, 1806, William D. Williamson married Jemima Montague Rice, by whom he had five children.
On June 3, 1823, he married Susan Ester White, they did not have children.
On January 27, 1825, Williamson married Clarissa Wiggin, the couple did not have children as well.
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Born
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Died
May 27, 1846 (aged 66) -
Resting place
Mount Hope Cemetery, Bangor, Maine, United States -
Nationality
American -
Political Party
Democratic-Republican