Eleazer Williams

Eleazer Williams (May 1788-August 28, 1858) was a Canadian clergyman and missionary of Mohawk descent.[1]

He was born in Sault St. Louis, Quebec, Canada, the son of Thomas Williams, and was educated at Dartmouth College. In 1815, Williams joined the Episcopal Church, after which he performed missionary work with the Oneida people of upstate New York. He accompanied a delegation of these Native Americans to Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1821, where they sought a cession of land from the Menominee and Winnebago. The following year Williams made his home there and was married to a Menominee woman named Madeleine Jourdain. In 1826 he was ordained a deacon.[2][3]

In 1839 and afterwards, Williams began to make the claim that he was the French Lost Dauphin. During the 1850s he openly became a pretender,[4] but he died in poverty at Hogansburg, New York.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Hauptman, Laurence; McLester III, Gordon (2002). Chief Daniel Bread and the Oneida Nation of Indians of Wisconsin. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3412-3.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Williams, Eleazer 1788 - 1858". Dictionary of Wisconsin History. Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved 2011-04-26.
  3. ↑ Williams, Eleazer (Éléazar) - Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online (University of Toronto). Retrieved 2011-04-26.
  4. ↑ Wight, William Ward; Chicago Historical Society (1903). Eleazer Williams not the dauphin of France: a lecture read before the Chicago historical society December 4, 1902. Fergus' historical series (35). Fergus Printing Company. Retrieved 2011-04-26.