He married sisters Rebecca Lanier and Sarah Lanier.

Spouse:
Sarah Sally Lanier (1748–1814), daughter of Thomas Lanier (1722–1804) and Elizabeth Hicks (1720–1789)

Their Children:
1. Margaret Williams (1763 Rockingham, VA – 5/20/1845 Clark, Indiana). Married John Altstatt (1755–1837)
2. Mary Fannie (Polly) Williams (6/16/1765 Orange, NC – 3/25/1798 Danville, Pittsylvania County, VA). She married Congressman Matthew Clay(3/25/1754 Danville, Halifax County, VA - 5/27/1815 Halifax, VA) and they had a the following children: Eliza Lewis Clay (1775 PA–____); Mary Polly Clay Gallant (1784 KY– 9/15/1837 Randor, Ohio); Amanda Clay (3/25/1789–12/26 1811 Richmond, VA); Sally Clay (11/22/1789–12/26/1811); Capt Joseph Clay (5/19/1792–1835 Alabama); Senator Matthew Clay (3/29/1794 Amelia County, VA–2/4/1827 Courtland, Lawrence County, AL) and Mary Clay (12/12/1795 Pittsylvania, VA–1811 Richmond, VA)

He married in Orange County, North Carolina, September 16, 1772, Rebekah Lanier born January 27, 1757, died March 20, 1832, sister of Sarah Lanier and related to Sidney Lanier, the Southern poet.

Their Children:
1. Robert Overton Williams (1/12/1773 Surry County, NC–5/27/1821 Knoxville, TN)
2. John Williams (1/29/1778 Surry County, NC–8/10/1837 Knoxville, TN). He married Melinda White (1789–1838) and they had the following children: John Williams (1818–1881) and Lewis Williams (1820–1871).
3. Lewis Williams (2/1/1782–2/23/1842)
4. William Williams (8/8/1783 Surry County, NC–12/4/1818 Surry County, NC)
5. Thomas Lanier Williams I (2/1/1786 Surry County, NC–12/3/1856 Nashville, TN). He married Mary Lawson McClung (1792–1828) and they had Margaret Williams (1817–1899)
6. Alexander Williams (1793–1852)
7. Frances Lanier Erwin (4/20/1796 NC–9/23/1872 Nashville, TN)
8. Nicholas Lanier Williams (2/4/1800 Surry County, NC–7/3/1886 Yadkin County, NC)

His father, Nathaniel, insisted all his sons learn a trade to help in case of adversity. Joseph learned the carpenter trade. His father died when he was 15 years of age, so when he was 18 he left Hanover County, Virginia, and went to work for a cousin, Joseph Williams, in North Carolina. Nicholas Lanier, Joseph's youngest son, wrote this report concerning the early days of his father:

--My father, Joseph Williams, fourth and youngest son of Nathaniel Williams of Hanover County, Virginia, when he first moved to N.C., clerked in the store of his cousin, (also named) Joseph Williams. He married Rebekah Lanier, the daughter of Thomas Lanier, of Granville County and the couple shortly moved to Surry County. Not long after his removal to that county, he was elected Clerk of the Surry County Court, which office he continued to hold until his death in 1827.--

Upon marriage, full of high adventure, the young couple challenged the wilderness. They carved out a plantation of several thousand acres in the wilds of Piedmont North Carolina, located in the well-watered Yadkin River Valley. Obviously, the Cherokee Indians did not welcome this incursion and went on the war path. Joseph Williams organized the Surry settlers into a body of militia and fought back. He captured and destroyed five of their villages and drove them back to the Tennessee River, and, as part of a tri-colonial campaign (Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina) got the Indians to sue for peace and accept a treaty. The result was not only to leave the Yadkin valley settlers in peace but to open up Tennessee and beyond for settlement. We often hear of the Treaty of Greenville, which opened up the Ohio country to settlement, but whoever hears of the Treaty of Watauga? Samuel C. Williams wrote many years later:

--Had this campaign been waged by New Englanders, instead of by Virginians, North Carolinians and Wataugans, it would not have failed of a sesquicentennial commemoration on a scale commensurate with its importance.--

Unfortunately, there was to be no early peace for this young couple due to the American Revolution. Joseph Williams was a Whig, as the Revolutionists termed themselves. He was the delegate from Surry, elected to the Hillsboror Convention to set up a provisional government for North Carolina, and was also commissioned a major in the State militia and was soon promoted to colonel and that is why he is referred to as Colonel Joseph to distinguish him from his many namesakes. His son, Nicholas Lanier, provides this account of a plot against his father:

--He was during the Revolutionary War a colonel in the Whig Army and fought several battles with the Tories, to whom he was exceedingly obnoxious. Three of his neighbors, one named Still and the other named Elrod, went to Fayetteville or near there and in connection with the Tories in that vicinity entered into a plan to kill my father, and in accordance with the arrangement agreed upon, the three neighbors returned home to execute their murderous plot. Col. Collier, of Stokes County, learning something of it, instantly sent a runner to inform my father, who at once set out to join Collier and his party and to proceed to arrest the three conspirators. When the door of the house was broken in, Still called for his sword in order to defend himself, but it had been broken the day before in killing a Whig. The two were taken a short distance from the house and shot, the third, one of the Elrods, was spared at the instance of my father, who claimed the right to protect him as coming from his County of Surry.--

This account of his son, Nicholas Lanier, gives us some insight into the character of Col. Joseph Williams. We find him to have been an officer and a Christian gentleman. Col. Williams was elected to represent Surry County in the Hillsboro Convention and divided his constituency in the provisional government. According to Wheeler:

--Colonel Joseph Williams settled in Surry County near Shallow Ford, before the Revolutionary War. He was distinguished for his enterprise, activity, and patriotism. He was a Colonel of militia in the Revolution, and was active in subduing the Tories. He died at a good old age, loved and respected by all who knew him. He married Miss Lanier, a Meanwhile, back at the plantation, Rebekah was raising a growing family and running a large operation. Here is the version of her trials and tribulations as related by a descendant, Mrs. Hayne Davis:

----"Mrs. Williams, who had three sons, took charge at home and managed all things well. Before leaving for the war, Colonel Williams had laid in all kinds of supplies for his family and we have little idea what that meant in these days of plenty and comfort. After a time came news of the approach of the Army of Lord Cornwallis. Mrs. Williams had an infant only two weeks old, her fourth son, and as the British army approached, she took her children and an old negro woman and sought refuge in the woods, where she remained until the army had crossed the river at the Shallow Ford of the Yadkin. When she reached home she found that all of her supplies had been either taken by the enemy or destroyed. They were not as ruthless as many invaders because her home and negro quarters were not burned. We can hardly imagine what it must have been like to her to again be under her own roof. Her infant child named Nathaniel (after his paternal grandfather) had contracted a heavy cold while they were in the woods, and, not having even the barest necessities of life left, and her maiden home in Granville County. How she was to make the journey was a most serious question and one that we cannot realize. It tried her to the utmost but her brave heart did not quail, and after arranging for her two oldest boys and the negroes, she mounted a horse with her sick baby in her lap and her boy of two and half years behind her and alone made the long journey to Granville County in safety, much of the country being in forests and a great deal of it swarming with Tories, but she was unmolested and at last found the rest we can see she sadly needed. Her child was ruined by the exposure; the soft place in his head never closing, and although he lived to be twenty years old, was a constant care as long as he lived.--

In his Last Will and Testament, Colonel Joseph provided for him as follows:

--I lend to my beloved and afflicted son Nathaniel two choice negroes out of the half above loaned to my wife during her natural life, one to nurse him and the other to labour for his support...--

These vignettes give us a picture of the hard and perilous life lived by our pioneer ancestors. The couple lived in a cabin on the banks of the Yadkin, called the "Sink House", a mile east of the current home site but moved because the spot was conducive to chills and fever. During the Revolution they built the mansion which proved to be a show place prior to its loss by fire in March, 1885. Colonel Joseph killed a panther on a nearby stream and so he called his estate "Panther Creek". The couple was known far and wide for their hospitality and gracious living. Colonel Joseph had twenty-one slaves which he named in his will and so much land that he did not know exactly how much because some of the land was involved in law suits. Joseph and Rebekah had thirteen children, twelve of whom were raised to adulthood, which was a feat by itself in those days of high infant mortality.

Colonel Joseph was distinguished for his leadership, his patriotism and progressive ideas. He was a church warden, a justice of the peace, a school committeeman, and clerk of court. He and Rebekah are buried in the Panther Creek cemetery, side by side.

A partial list of his children is:

John Williams [1778- 1837]. g-g-g grandfather of Tennessee Williams, the playwrite.