Richard Williams (my eighth great grandfather) was born to William and Jane (Woodward) Williams in the hamlet of Synwell, in the market town of Wotton-under-Edge, county of Gloucestershire, in the Cotswold region of southwest England. Wotton means town near the wood. Edge refers to some Cotswold hills that rise abruptly over the town. A delightful 30-minute portrait of Wotton was done by the BBC in 1977.

Richard married Frances Deighton, daughter of prominent Gloucester surgeon John Deighton, on February 11, 1632, in the parish of Whitcombe Magna. In 1636(?) they crossed the Atlantic and took up residence in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Shortly thereafter they moved to what would become Taunton. Richard was one of 46 purchasers of Cohannet, a 64-square mile tract, from Massasoit, Chief of the Wampanoags, in 1638. The boundaries of Taunton expanded with several more purchases, and the land so purchased later was subdivided into the many towns which now surround Taunton. It was in this way that Dighton, named in honor of Frances, was acquired as part of the "South Purchase" and later incorporated as a separate town.