George James Williams, known familiarly as Gilly Williams (1719–1805) was an English official, known as a wit and letter writer.
Life
Born at
Denton, Lincolnshire
Denton is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish was 273 at the 2011 census. It is situated approximately both south-west of Grantham and west from the A1 road.
...
, he was a younger son of
William Peere Williams and Anne, daughter of
Sir George Hutchins. Through the influence of
Lord North
Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (13 April 17325 August 1792), better known by his courtesy title Lord North, which he used from 1752 to 1790, was 12th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782. He led Great Britain through most o ...
, who married in 1756 a daughter of Williams's sister, he obtained on 8 November 1774 the post of Receiver-General of Excise, which he held until 1801.
Williams made up, with
George Selwyn,
Richard Edgecumbe and
Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician.
He had Strawb ...
, a group who met at stated periods in the year at
Strawberry Hill. He also met his friends for "wit and whist" in Selwyn's Thursday Club at the Star and Garter in
Pall Mall. He dropped out of his old circle, and little is heard of him after 1770. He died in Cleveland Court, St. James's, near the house where his friend Selwyn had lived, on 28 November 1805.
Family
Williams married, on 30 July 1752, Diana, daughter of
William Coventry, 5th Earl of Coventry
William Coventry, 5th Earl of Coventry (c.1676 – 18 March 1751), of London and later Croome Court, Worcestershire, was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1719.
Early life
Coventry was the son of Walter Coven ...
, who appears to have died early without issue.
Notes
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Gilly
1719 births
1805 deaths
English writers