Esther Williams was the second wife of her cousin Dr. Thomas Williams (1718-1775) of Deerfield, Massachusetts. The daughter of the Reverend William Williams of Weston, Massachusetts, she and Dr. Williams were married in 1748. His first wife had died at age twenty-two, two weeks after giving birth to their third child. Esther and Thomas had ten more children. They lived in a house on Deerfield’s main street that was built for them in 1748. After her husband died, Esther stayed on in the house, her youngest child then only six years old. She did not remarry.