at St. Bees he gave his portrait; he had already, in September 1671, given two exbibitions for scholars of Dovenby in his native parish. To the provost and scholars of Queen's College he left 6,000l. 'to be laid out in further new buildings to the colledge and otherwise beautifying the said colledge,' as well as his 'library of printed books and books of heraldry and genaligy, as well manuscripts as printed;' to Christ's Church Hospital, London, he gave 300l.; to St. Bartholomew's (of which he had been a governor) 300l.; and to the Royal Society at Grasham College 200l. To Thetford, in addition to munificant gifts during his lifetime (see Blomefield, Norfolk, i. 463 sq.), he bequeathed 2,000l., and the income is now devoted partly to a school and hospital foundation at Thetford, and partly in binding out apprentices and in local charities. To Rochester, besides 20l. for the poor, some gilt communion plate, and a portrait of William III to hang in the town-hall, he left 5,000l. for the purchasing of lands and tenements to support a free 'mathematical school.' This was opened in 1708 under the mastership of John Colson [q. v.], and rebuilt under a new scheme in 1892-4. As a mark of his loyalty to his old college, Williamson chose for his crest one of the Queen's eagles, and for his motto 'Sub umbra tuarum alarum' (his arms are still to be seen in a window at Clothworkers' Hall). Among Wood's pamphlets was a now rare 'Impressio secunda Carminia beroici in honorem Jo. Williamson' [by Payne Fisher].
An interesting portrait (erroneously attribnted to Lely) was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, London, in 1895. Besides the portrait at St. Bees, and the half-length by Kneller at Burlington House, there are portraits of Williamson in Queen's College Hall, in the town-hall, Rochester, and in Clothworkers' Hall.
[A full Life of Williamson would involve an almost exhaustive survey of political and social England from 1665 to 1680. His local connections have been commemorated in a series of brief but useful summaries of his career: that with Cobham Hall by Canon Scott Robertson in the Archæologia Cantiana (xi. 274–84); that with Cumberland in Hutchinson's Hist. of Cumberland, ii. 244 sq., in Nicholson and Burn's Westmorland, and in Peile's Annals of the Peiles of Strathclyde (chap. iii.); that with Rochester in Mr. Charles Bird's Sir J. Williamson, founder of the Mathematical School (Rochester, 1894), and in Mr. A. Rhodes's very careful notice of Williamson in the Chatham and Rochester News, 26 Nov. 1898; that with Thetford in Martin's Hist. of Thetford, 1779, pp. 220 sq., and in Millington's Page in the Hist. of Thetford; that with the Royal Society in Weld's Hist. of the Royal Society, i. 262 sq.; and that with Gravesend in Cruden's Hist. of Gravesend, 1843, pp. 377 sq. The Cal. of State Papers, Dom. from 1660 to 1671, contains frequent references to Williamson. The state papers relating to the years 1672–9 (as yet uncalendared) embody a vast number of Williamson papers, diaries, and letters; extracts from his official journal are printed as an appendix to the Calendars from 1671 onwards. For the enormous bulk of Williamson Papers previous to their dispersion and rearrangement, see Thomas's Departmental Hist. 1846, folio; and 30th Annual Report of the Deputy-Keeper of Public Records. A few letters, papers, and transcripts from his official diaries are among the Additional manuscripts (see especially Addit. MSS. 5488 ff. 1379, 5831 f. 87, 28040 f. 35, 28093 f. 214, 28945 f. 197, 34727 f. 130), and Stowe MSS. (see especially 200, 201, 203–10 passim, and 549, f. 12) at the British Museum. See also Christie's Williamson Corresp. (Camden Soc.), 1874; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Cole's Athenæ Cantabr. (Addit. MS. 5883, f. 83); Welch's Alumni Westmon. p. 171 n.; Jackson's Cumberland and Westmorland Papers, 1892, ii. 203, 230; Lonsdale's Worthies of Cumberland, vi. 228; Life and Times of Anthony à Wood, vols. ii. and iii. passim; Hasted's Kent, ii. 63; Evelyn's Diary, 1895, i. 409, ii. 22, 42, 57, 73, 101, 111, 124, 180; Pepys's Diary, ed. Wheatley, iv. 290, 383, v. passim, vi. 33–4, vii. and viii. passim; Luttrell's Brief Hist. Relation, i. 8, 9, ii. 44, 156, 353, iii. 566, iv. passim, v. 84, 94, 96; Lexington Papers, ed. Sutton, 1851; Anne Greene's Newes from the Dead, 1650, p. 6; Official Returns of Members of Parl.; Parl. Hist. v. 1014, 1038; Eachard's Hist. of England, 1718, iii. 368, 479, 498; Rapin's Hist. of England, vol. ii.; Ralph's Hist. of England, vol. i.; Boyer's William III, pp. 76 sq.; Ranke's Hist. of England, iv. 65; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. p. 546, 7th Rep. p. 495, 8th Rep. p. 390, 15th Rep. pp. 171, 177; Courtenay's Life of Sir W. Temple; Christie's Life of Shaftesbury; Masson's Life of Milton, vi. passim; Ashton's Hist. of Lotteries; Evelyn's Numismata, p. 27; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iv. 58–9; Dasent's St. James's Square, pp. 6, 30, 107; Weld's Cat. of Royal Society Portraits, 1860, p. 70; National Portrait Gallery Cat. 1898; Flassan's Diplomatie Française, 1811, iv. passim; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vii. passim; notes from Queen's College Registers, most kindly furnished by the Provost.]
WILLIAMSON, PETER (1730–1799), author and publisher, son of James Williamson, crofter, was born in the parish of Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, in 1730. When about ten years of age be fell a victim to a barbarous traffic which then disgraced Aberdeen, being kidnapped and transported to the American, plantations, where he was sold for a period of seven years to a fellow countryman in
