During the French and Indian War, Williamstown is the western most outpost in a line of forts along the northern border of Massachusetts. The forts were under the command of Col. Ephraim Williams Jr., who was commissioned by the governor to lay out two townships at the headwaters of the Hoosic River. The Townships were called East and West Hoosuck.
In 1765 the town was incorporated as Williamstown according to the will of Col. Ephraim Williams, who was killed at the Battle of Lake George in 1755.
Ephraim Williams, older son of Ephraim and Elizabeth (Jackson) Williams, was born in 1715. According to tradition he visited England, Spain and Holland in his youth and, although he had little formal schooling, he had an admiration of learning. He spent the last ten years of his life as a colonial soldier, with headquarters at Fort Shirley, Mass., and latter at Fort Massachusetts.
In 1750, the General Court granted him 190 acres near the latter fort and he held lots in West Township [i.e., Williamstown]. Williams left a large part of his estate to support and maintain a free school in West Township on the condition that it were named after him and started a free school. The school opened in October of 1791 with 15 students.
By incorporating Williamstown in the colony of Massachusetts, the Proprietors were making clear that they intended this town to be in that colony, which was another requirement of Ephraim Williams’ will. The actual border was not settled until after the end of the American Revolution, which is why it took so much longer to establish the “free school”.
The free school became Williams College in 1793 under a charter from the Commonwealth, becoming the second college, following Harvard, to be founded in Massachusetts.
A brief history of Williamstown - Massachusetts
