JOHN R. WILLIAMS was born at Detroit, May 4, 1782, and was the only son of Thomas Williams, a native of Albany, New York, who came to Detroit in 1765, and married a sister of the late Joseph Campau. He received an appointment in the Army in 1796. and entered the service under General Wilkinson, at Fort Marsac, on the Cumberland River, in Tennessee. In 1799 he resigned, as the solicitation of Mr. Campau, and returned to Detroit, to engage in business. They formed a partnership to engage in the Indian trade, and Mr. Williams went to Montreal to purchase goods. While on board a small sloop at Queenstown, he became engaged in an altercation with a Frenchman named La Salle, a descendant of the renowned navigator and explorer. It resulted in their fighting a duel across a table, in which La Salle was shot and severely wounded Mr. Williams was arrested and carried to Montreal, where he remained under bail for several months, but was finally discharged.

In 1802 he returned to Detroit, and embarked in the fur trade and general mercantile business. During the war of 1812 he was made Captain of an artillery company. At the time of Hull's surrender he became a prisoner, but was paroled, and moved with his family to Albany, where he remained until 1815, when he returned to Detroit and resumed business.

In the year 1815 he was appointed Associate Justice of the County Court, and in 1818 was made one of the County Commissioners, and in the same year was also appointed Adjutant General of the Territory, and served until 1829. He was the author of the City Charter of 1824, and served as the first Mayor under it, and was elected to the same office in 1830, 1844, 1845 and 1846. He served as President of the Constitutional Convention held at Ann Arbor in 1835, and was active at all limes in all political matters. He was also always interested in military affairs, and at the breaking out of the Black Hawk war was in command of the Territorial troops, and went to Chicago to aid in defending the western settlements. He owned a large amount of real estate, and his name and the names of members of his family are perpetuated in the names of several of the streets of the city.

He married Mary Mott, daughter of Major Gershom Mott, on October 25, 1804. They had ten children, viz.: Ferdinand; Theodore; G. Mott; Thomas; John C; James Mott; J. C. Devereux; Elizabeth, first wife of Colonel John Winder; Cecilia; Mary C. A., married first to David Smart, second to Commodore J. V. McKinstry; she died in 1876.
Mr. Williams died at Detroit, October 20, 1854.

Source: History of Detroit and Wayne County and Early Michigan By Silas Farmer 1890