Article

Eleazer Williams

Published Online February 4, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Eleazer Williams, Protestant Episcopalian minister, pretender to the French throne (b at Lake George, NY, about 1788; d at St Regis Reservation, NY 28 Aug 1858). Williams was of mixed Haudenosaunee and white ancestry from the Caughnawaga (now Kahnawake) Reserve near Montréal.
Title page for Gaiatonsera ionteweienstakwa, ongwe onwe gawennontakon. A spelling book in the language of the Haudenosauneee nations by Eleazer Williams

Eleazer Williams, Protestant Episcopalian minister, pretender to the French throne (b at Lake George, NY, about 1788; d at St Regis Reservation, NY 28 Aug 1858). Williams was of mixed Haudenosaunee and white ancestry from the Caughnawaga (now Kahnawake) Reserve near Montréal. The young Mohawk fought on the American side in the War of 1812 and remained in the US. After many years as a missionary, Williams began presenting himself as the lost Bourbon dauphin. J.H. Hanson of New York City published The Lost Prince on Williams's behalf in 1854. Shortly before the Caughnawaga Mohawk's death in 1858 his extraordinary claim had been disproven. His biography of his real father, Life of Te-ho-ra-gwa-ne-gen, alias Thomas Williams, appeared in 1859.