Stephen Williams was the third son of the Reverend John Williams of Deerfield, Massachusetts. He became the first minister of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, where his influence as a preacher from 1716 to 1782 was felt throughout the Connecticut River Valley.

At age ten, along with other family members and townspeople, Stephen was taken captive to Canada after the 1704 raid on Deerfield during Queen Anne’s War (1701-1713). He lived with Abenakis in Canada for more than a year, and wrote a captivity narrative that has been published by Deerfield’s Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association.

Williams graduated from Harvard College in 1713, served as chaplain in the 1745 Louisburg expedition, and was present at Fort Ticonderoga in the Bloody Morning Scout of 1755 with his kinsman, Col. Ephraim Williams. Stephen and his first wife, Abigail, had eight children, all of whom grew to adulthood.