Brigadier General James Henderson Williams b. 10 Nov 1740 Hanover County, Virginia, USA d. 7 Oct 1780 Gaston County, North Carolina, USA: Smith Family Tree

Brigadier General James Henderson Williams

1740 - 1780 (39 years)

Name	James Henderson Williams [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]
Title	Brigadier General
Birth	10 Nov 1740	Hanover County, Virginia, USA [2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9]
	Old Fork Church
Gender	Male
DAR/SAR	Daughters of the American Revolution #: A126181, Sons of the American Revolution P-320778
		Seal-DAR Daughters of the American Revolution
		Seal-SAR Sons of the American Revolution
FSID	L2P2-ZG5
Residence	1756	Granville County, North Carolina, USA [5]
	Muster Roll: SC Militia
Elected	Between 1775 and 1776	Charleston County, South Carolina, USA [2]
	Representative of South Carolina in the First and Second Provincial Congresses
Probate	1780	Caswell County, North Carolina, USA
Religion	Laurens County, South Carolina, USA
	Elder of Little River Presbyterian Church
Military Service	1780 [2, 10, 11, 12]
	American Army - Revolutionary War: Led at Battles of Stono Ferry, Briar Creek, Musgrove Mill, and King's Mountain; "Hero of Kings Mountain"
		War-Battle of Kings Mountain (Revolution) Engraving depicting the death of British Major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of Kings Mountain during the American Revolutionary War -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kings_Mountain
Death	7 Oct 1780	Gaston County, North Carolina, USA [2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 12]
	Cause: Killed in Action - Revolutionary War
	Died at the Battle of Kings Mountain
Burial	Gaffney, Cherokee, South Carolina, USA [2]
	Cherokee County Administration Building
		Burial-WILLIAMS James (Gafney SC) Brigadier General James Henderson Williams - Re-interred on the front lawn of the Cherokee County Administration Building, Limestone Street, Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina ~ Cemetery Grave Marker of American Revolutionary War Brigadier General James Henderson WILLIAMS, 1740-1780, mortally wounded at the Battle of Kings Mountain …
Person ID	I25356	A Tree Called Smith
Last Modified	21 Jul 2025

Father	Daniel Williams, b. 28 Sep 1710, Prince Edward County, Virginia, USA d. 15 Nov 1759, Granville County, North Carolina, USA (Age 49 years)
Relationship	natural
Mother	Ursula Henderson, b. 23 Feb 1710, Cumberland County, Virginia, USA d. 1765, Granville County, North Carolina, USA (Age 54 years)
Relationship	natural
Marriage	19 Oct 1732	Old Fork Church, Hanover County, Virginia, USA [13]
Family ID	F3368	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family Mary Clark Wallace, b. 8 May 1743, Augusta County, Virginia, USA d. 1804, Cross Hill, Laurens, South Carolina, USA (Age 60 years)

Marriage 1762 Granville County, North Carolina, USA [1, 7, 8, 14]

Children

	1. James Baker Williams, b. 18 Jan 1774, Granville County, North Carolina, USA d. 13 Aug 1833, Cross Hill, Laurens, South Carolina, USA (Age 59 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	2. Sarah Elizabeth Williams, b. 1774, Granville County, North Carolina, USA d. 1860, Marshall County, Alabama, USA (Age 86 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	3. Elizabeth Williams, b. 22 Aug 1777, King Mountain, York, South Carolina, USA d. 1807, Clinton, Laurens, South Carolina, USA (Age 29 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	4. Joseph Williams, b. 1767, Granville County, North Carolina, USA d. 17 Nov 1781, Laurens County, South Carolina, USA (Age 14 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	5. Major Daniel Williams, b. 1763, Granville County, North Carolina, USA d. 18 Nov 1781, Laurens County, South Carolina, USA (Age 18 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	6. John Williams, b. Abt 1769, North Carolina, USA d. Abt 1782 (Age 13 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	7. Mary Ann Williams, b. 25 Sep 1769, Granville County, North Carolina, USA d. 15 Apr 1828, Laurens County, South Carolina, USA (Age 58 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	8. Washington Williams, b. 22 Aug 1777, Laurens County, South Carolina, USA d. 24 Jun 1829, South Carolina, USA (Age 51 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]
	9. Private (Musician) William Williams, b. Abt 1780, North Carolina, USA d. 1 Jan 1815, Camp Covington, Chatham County, Georgia, USA (Age 35 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]

Family ID F10647 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 21 Jul 2025

Event Map

	Birth - 10 Nov 1740 - Hanover County, Virginia, USA
	Residence - Muster Roll: SC Militia - 1756 - Granville County, North Carolina, USA
	Marriage - 1762 - Granville County, North Carolina, USA
	Elected - Representative of South Carolina in the First and Second Provincial Congresses - Between 1775 and 1776 - Charleston County, South Carolina, USA
	Probate - 1780 - Caswell County, North Carolina, USA
	Religion - Elder of Little River Presbyterian Church - - Laurens County, South Carolina, USA
	Death - Cause: Killed in Action - Revolutionary War - 7 Oct 1780 - Gaston County, North Carolina, USA
	Burial - - Gaffney, Cherokee, South Carolina, USA

= Link to Google Earth

Arms Icons & Insignia » Slide Show		Military Grave Marker - Revolutionary War Killed in Action: American Service in the Revolutionary
		Seal-DAR Daughters of the American Revolution
		Seal-SAR Sons of the American Revolution

Biographies and Histories » Slide Show		Bio-WILLIAMS James Brigadier General James Henderson Williams Biography
		Bio-WILLIAMS William Our Progenitor William Pittman Williams
		History-Battle of Kings Mountain (My American Revolution) The Battle of Kings Mountain from the American Revolutionary War + https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/801007-kings-mountain/

Burials

Burial-WILLIAMS James (Gafney SC)
Brigadier General James Henderson Williams - Re-interred on the front lawn of the Cherokee County Administration Building, Limestone Street, Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina ~ Cemetery Grave Marker of American Revolutionary War Brigadier General James Henderson WILLIAMS, 1740-1780, mortally wounded at the Battle of Kings Mountain …

Wars & Battles

War-Battle of Kings Mountain (Revolution)
Engraving depicting the death of British Major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of Kings Mountain during the American Revolutionary War -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kings_Mountain

Sources

[S982] Hunting For Bears, comp., South Carolina Marriage Index, 1641-1965, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT ; Date: 2005;).

[S10484] Find a Grave (Killed in Action - Revolutionary War), WILLIAMS James Henderson - Brigadier General American Army - 1740-1780 (Veteran) (KILLED IN ACTION).
- Birth: 10 Nov 1740 Old Church, Hanover County, Virginia - Death: 7 Oct 1780 (aged 39) Gaston County, North Carolina - Burial: Cherokee County Administration Building, Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Ca

Revolutionary War Brigadier General James Henderson Williams, mortally wounded at the Battle of Kings Mountain
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54701368/james-henderson-williams

[S602] Hatcher, Patricia Law, Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT ; Date: 1999;), Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots; Volume: 4; Serial: 8848; Volume: 5.
[S509] Sons of the American Revolution - Members, Volume: 201.

U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970
Volume: 201
[S1483] Ancestry.com, South Carolina, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1790-1890, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT ; Date: 1999;).
[S164] Yates Publishing, U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT ; Date: 2004;), Source number: 241.048; Source type: Family group sheet (from "Gleanings"), listed as parents; Number of Pages: 1.
[S203] Edmund West, comp., Family Data Collection - Individual Records, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT ; Date: 2000;), Birth year: 1740; Birth city: Hanover County; Birth state: VA.
[S634] Ancestry.com, North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT ; Date: 2016;), Book Title: Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the DAR Vol 085.

North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000
Book Title: Lineage Book of the Charter Members of the DAR Vol 085
[S12] Ancestry.com, Geneanet Community Trees Index, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Lehi, UT ; Date: 2022;).
[S777] Wikipedia: Battle of Kings Mountain, (Name: Wikipedia;).
The Battle of Kings Mountain was a military engagement between Patriot and Loyalist militias in South Carolina during the Southern Campaign of the American Revolutionary War, resulting in a decisive victory for the Patriots. The battle took place on October 7, 1780, 9 miles south of the present-day town of Kings Mountain, North Carolina. In what is now rural Cherokee County, South Carolina, the Patriot militia defeated the Loyalist militia commanded by British Major Patrick Ferguson of the 71st Foot. The battle has been described as "the war's largest all-American fight".
. . . The battle was a pivotal event in the Southern campaign. The surprising victory of the American Patriot militia over the Loyalists came after a string of Patriot defeats at the hands of Lord Cornwallis, and greatly raised the Patriots' morale. With Ferguson dead and his Loyalist militia destroyed, Cornwallis was forced to abandon his plan to invade North Carolina and retreated into South Carolina.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kings_Mountain
[S1199] Ancestry.com, Bavaria, Germany, WWI Personnel Rosters, 1914-1918, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT ; Date: 2010;), REVOLUTIONARY WAR - Battle of Kings Mountain.
The Revolutionary War battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina proved to be a stinging defeat in the British attempt to secure control of the Southern colonies.
How it ended
American victory. The fierce firefight at Kings Mountain pitted Loyalist militia elements under the command of British major Patrick Ferguson against 900 patriots. The British effort to secure Loyalist support in the South was a failure. Thomas Jefferson called the battle "The turn of the tide of success."
In context
The siege of Charleston in May 1780 was one of the worst American defeats of the Revolutionary War. Another British victory, in the Battle of Camden, followed in August 1780. British general Charles Lord Cornwallis dispatched Major Patrick Ferguson to North Carolina in early September 1780. Ferguson had two tasks: recruit members to fight for the Loyalist militia and protect the Cornwallis’s left flank as he attempted to move through the Carolinas.
Nicknamed Bull Dog by his men, Ferguson soon came up against the Overmountain men, residents of the Carolina Backcountry and the Appalachian mountain range, and from places that would later become the states of Tennessee and Kentucky. American cavalry commander “Light Horse” Harry Lee called them, “A race of hardy men who were familiar with the use of the horse and the rifle, stout, active, patient under privation, and brave.” To the British, however, they were “more savage than the Indians.” From the start Ferguson miscalculated his potential foes, brazenly issuing a proclamation for the local patriots to “desist from their opposition to British arms” or he would “march over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country to waste with fire and sword.” His scare tactics backfired.
On October 7, 1780, Ferguson and the Overmountain men met in a small but significant battle in the War for Independence. It took place on a rocky hilltop in Western South Carolina called Kings Mountain. The rout of the Loyalists there was the first major setback for Britain's southern strategy and started a chain of events that culminated in Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/kings-mountain
[S779] USWars: Battle of Kings Mountain - My Revolutionary War, (Name: American Revolutionary War;), The Revolutionary War battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina proved to be a stinging defeat in the British attempt to secure control of the Southern colonies. How it ended American victory. The fierce firefight at Kings Mountain pitted Loyalist militia elements under the command of British major Patrick Ferguson against 900 patriots. The British effort to secure Loyalist support in the South was a failure. Thomas Jefferson called the battle "The turn of the tide of success." In context The siege of Charleston in May 1780 was one of the worst American defeats of the Revolutionary War. Another British victory, in the Battle of Camden, followed in August 1780. British general Charles Lord Cornwallis dispatched Major Patrick Ferguson to North Carolina in early September 1780. Ferguson had two tasks: recruit members to fight for the Loyalist militia and protect the Cornwallis’s left flank as he attempted to move through the Carolinas. Nicknamed Bull Dog by his men, Ferguson soon came up against the .
Battle of Kings Mountain
https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/801007-kings-mountain/

History-Battle of Kings Mountain (My American Revolution)
The Battle of Kings Mountain from the American Revolutionary War + https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/801007-kings-mountain/
[S54] Ancestry Family Trees, (Name: Online publication - Provo, UT : Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.;), Database online.
[S6513] Find a Grave: WALLACE Mary Williams 1743-1804, Mary Clark Wallace Griffin Williams.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28175426/mary_clark_griffin_williams

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Brigadier General James Henderson Williams

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