William Peere Williams-Freeman

Admiral of the Fleet William Peere Williams-Freeman (born William Peere Williams; 6 January 1742 – 11 February 1832) was a Royal Navy officer. He saw action aboard as a junior officer at the Battle of Quiberon Bay during the Seven Years' War. He also took part, as captain of the fifth-rate , in the Battle of Rhode Island and then, as captain of the fifth-rate , in the second relief of Gibraltar during the American War of Independence. Many years after his retirement from the Navy, Williams-Freeman became Admiral of the Fleet for a brief period before his death at the age of 90.

Family and early life

Williams was born in Peterborough on 6 January 1742, the son of Frederick Williams, prebendary of Peterborough, and his wife Mary Williams (née Clavering). His paternal grandfather was William Peere Williams, while his maternal grandfather was Robert Clavering, bishop of Peterborough, and his maternal grandmother was Mary Freeman, sister of John Cook Freeman of Fawley Court, Buckinghamshire. William Williams was educated at Eton College, and was entered on the books of the 100-gun first-rate HMS Royal Sovereign, the guardship at Spithead, in June 1757. He appears to have first gone to sea in August 1759 aboard the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Magnanime under Lord Howe. Williams saw action aboard her at the Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759 during the Seven Years' War.

First commands

In September 1762 Williams followed Howe to the 80-gun third-rate HMS Princess Amelia, and in August 1763 joined the 50-gun HMS Romney with Lord Colville on the Halifax station. He moved to the 28-gun sixth-rate on 21 March. He married shortly after this, on 20 June, after which he took Active to the West Indies. He may have again suffered a bout of ill-health, for on 8 September he exchanged ships with Captain James Ferguson and took Ferguson's 32-gun frigate back to England to be paid off. from Sir Booth Williams, a cousin. and at Hoddesdon and in November 1821 he took the additional name of Freeman, as a condition of his inheriting the Fawley Court estate from Strickland Freeman, another relative. vice-admiral on 1 June 1795 and full admiral on 14 February 1799. On 28 June 1830, three days after the accession of William IV, he was promoted to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet, the king sending him, as a special compliment, a baton which had been presented to himself by George IV. He died at his home at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, on 11 February 1832. He was buried in the family vault at St Augustine's Church in Broxbourne.

Family and issue

Williams married Henrietta Willis on 20 June 1771. She died at Hoddesdon in 1819, having borne him two sons, one of them also named William Peere Williams-Freeman. Both predeceased their father, with William junior dying in 1830 and leaving issue. After Admiral Williams's death his grandson applied to know the king's pleasure as to the return of the baton. The king desired that it should be retained by the family as "a memorial of the late admiral's long services and the high professional rank he had attained, and in proof of the estimation in which his character was held by his sovereign and brother officers".