When John L Williams was born in 1808, in Pembrook, Giles County, Virginia. His father, Alexander, was 26 and his mother, Elizabeth “Lisha or Eliza” White, was 28.

He married Ann Dickinson Hinton on September 29, 1832, at Wabash Camping Grounds in Giles County, Virginia. They had eight children in 18 years: Margaret Ann, John, James Harrison, Andrew Jackson, Mary Emmaline, Allen Meador, Elizabeth, and Robert Greenlee.

Per death records, he died on November 30, 1853, in Mercer, West Virginia, at the age of 45.