Walter John Williams, (1817-1860)        

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 21 February 1817, Wyke Regis, Dorset, England  

Death: 09 November 1860, near Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: None.

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: None

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standard

Walter John Williams was born on February 21st, 1817 in Wyke Regis, Dorset, England  to John Williams and Ann Smith. He was the fifth of six children to John and Ann. The family was Presbyterian. 

In 1841, he was living in St. James, Gloucestershire. Then in the 1851 census, he was living in St. Helen, Middlesex working as a warehouse man. He was living in a boarding house with four women and three other men. One of the women was a twenty-one year old barmaid named Jane Kilbourne from Essex.

On April 4, 1851, William received his Certificate of Competency as Master in the Merchant Marine Service.  

On September 28, 1852, Walter married Jane Kilbourne at Christ Church in Southwark, England. Walter was thirty five years old at this time.

In January 1859, Walter was assigned to captain a British barque named the Sea Nymph from London to Victoria, B.C., Canada. The Sea Nymph made a port stop in Honolulu, Hawaii. In “The Pacific Advertiser,” the Sea Nymph advertised fine liquors for wholesale from London such as brandy, port, cherry cordial, and Jamaican rum.  The Sea Nymph then set sail for Victoria where it arrived after a total of 330 days at sea via Honolulu on January 24, 1860.  

Walter’s wife Jane accompanied him on the voyage, and on October 4, 1859 when the ship was near South America, she gave birth to their son whom they named Walter John.

Walter and his family presumably stayed in Victoria for the year. The Sea Nymph was commanded by other captains during its other 1860 voyages out to Hong Kong and San Francisco. 

On November 9, 1860, Walter John Williams unexpectedly passed away from “delirium tremens” or alcohol withdrawal just five miles north of Seabeck at the camp of Messrs. Hood & Miller. He was in the area to catch passage to London on the barque Grecian. The article in the British Colonist stated he was thirty-seven years old at the time of his death, but he was really forty-three.