Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/661

WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM offered by Philip II. since 1580 for his assas- sination, and once he was dangerously wound- ed. The task was at last undertaken by Bal- tazar Gerard, a Burgundian fanatic, who shot him through the body as he was leaving the dining room. William expired a few minutes afterward in the arms of his wife and sister. The assassin, after undergoing frightful tor- tures, was beheaded on July 14; but his family was ennobled by Philip and endowed with confiscated estates of the prince. William was about the middle height, and well made, but spare. His complexion was brown, his head was small and symmetrical, and his brow capa- cious. Next to piety his chief characteristic was firmness. His military genius was early recognized by Charles V., and in political saga- city he had no superior. He left 12 children. By Anne of Egmont he had one son, the count of Buren, and a daughter ; by his second wife, Anna of Saxony, two daughters and the cele- brated Maurice of Nassau; by Charlotte of Bourbon, six daughters; and by his fourth wife, the widowed Louise de Teligny, daughter of Coligni, one son, Frederick Henry (1584 1647), who succeeded Maurice as stadtholder. A memorial tower in his honor was inaugura- ted at Dillenburg, June 29, 1875. See Schiller, Geschichte des Abfalls der Niederlande; Ga- chard, Correspondance de Guillaume le Taci- turne (5 vols., Brussels, 1847-'65) ; Motley, " The Rise of the Dutch Kepublic " (3 vols.,- London and New York, 1856); Klose, Wil- helm I. ton Oranien (edited by Wuttke, Leip- sic, 1864) ; and Ernst Herrmann, Wilhelm ton Oranien (Stuttgart, 1873). WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM, an English states- man, born at Wickham, Hampshire, in 1324, died at South Waltham, Sept. 24, 1404. He was educated at Winchester, and became sec- retary to Sir Nicholas Uvedale, governor of Winchester castle. In May, 1356, he was ap- pointed clerk of all the king's works in his manors of Henle and Yeshampsted, and in October ' ; chief keeper and surveyor of the castles of the king at Windsor, Leeds, Dover, and Hadlee." He built a strong castle at Queenborough in the isle of Sheppey. In 1357 the king gave him, though then a layman, the rectory of Pulham in Norfolk. In 1361 he was ordained subdeacon, and in 1362 priest. In 1364 he was made keeper of the privy seal, and in 1366 secretary of state and bishop of Winchester. In September, 1367, he was ap- pointed lord high chancellor of England, which office he resigned March 24, 1371. Charges were made against him in 1376 of misappro- priations of money, which were narrowed down to the fact that he had forgiven half of a fine of 80. His property was seized, and he was banished from his see, but was restored after the accession of Richard II. He was again created lord chancellor in 1389, but re- signed in 1391. He founded a college at Win- chester, and one at Oxford, still called New college, and rebuilt the cathedral at Winchester. WILLIAMS 637 WILLIAMS. I. The extreme N. W. county of Ohio, bordering on Indiana and Michigan and intersected by the St. Joseph's and Tiffin riv- ers; area, 600 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 20,991. Ihe surface is generally undulating and the soil fertile. The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railroad traverses it. The chief pro- ductions in 1870 were 309,099 bushels of wheat, 317,760 of Indian corn, 234,225 of oats, 89 792 of potatoes, 571,752 Ibs. of butter, 144,685 of wool, and 30,216 tons of hay. There were 6,761 horses, 6,682 milch cows, 8,257 other cattle, 39,779 sheep, and 17,718 swine; 2 man- ufactories of agricultural implements, 10 of carriages and wagons, 5 tanneries, 4 currying establishments, 1 flour mill, 17 saw mills,"and 4 woollen mills. Capital, Bryan. II. AN. W. county of Dakota, bounded N. E. by the Mis- souri, not included in the census of 1870; area, about 2,500 sq. m. It is intersected by the Big Knife and Little Missouri rivers. The surface is chiefly rolling prairie. WILLIAMS, Eleazar, an American clergyman, who claimed to be Louis XVII. of France, born at Caughnawaga, N. Y., about 1787, died at Heganstown, N. Y., Aug. 28, 1858. He was supposed to be the son of Thomas Williams, an Indian chief, and grandson of Eunice, daugh- ter of " the redeemed captive." (See WIL- LIAMS, JOHN.) He was educated at Longmea- dow, Mass., served among the Canadian Indians as a secret agent of the United States in the war of 1812, and was severely wounded at Plattsburgh in 1814. He acted as a lay mis- sionary of the Episcopal church among the In- dians for several years, and was ordained in 1826. He translated the Prayer Book into the Mohawk tongue, and published an Indian spell- ing book, and a work translated into English under the title " Caution against our Common Enemy" (Albany, 1815). About 1842 he be- gan to make known his claim to be the son of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, who he as- serted had been successfully abstracted from his revolutionary prison in Paris, and brought to America by an agent of the royal family. The Rev. J. II. Hanson of New York set forth the story in " Putnam's Monthly " in 1853, and af- terward in a volume entitled " The Lost Prince " (New York, 1854). Williams's " Life of Te-ho- ra-gwa-ne-gen, alias Thomas Williams, a Chief of the Caughnawaga Tribe of Indians," was privately printed (91 pages, Albany, 1859). WILLIAMS, Ephraim, an American soldier, born in Newton, Mass., Feb. 24, 1715, killed near Lake George, Sept. 8, 1755. In early life he was a sailor, but afterward became a soldier, and in the Anglo-French war (l740-'48) he was a captain in the provincial service in Can- ada. In 1750 the government granted him 200 acres of land in the present townships of Adams and Williamstown, on which Fort Mas- sachusetts was built. He was placed in com- mand of that and of all the line of border forts W. of the Connecticut river. In 1755, after the renewal of hostilities between England and