Anna Williams (poet)

Besides poetry, she wrote an unfinished dictionary of philosophical terms and translated and published a French biography of the emperor Julian.

In 1726–27, the family moved to London, staying at the Charterhouse, where Anna helped her father while he experimented with magnetism in pursuit of the longitude prize and became his home-help, when he became bedridden and hospitalised in 1745.

[1] In 1748 her father was ejected from hospital and they appealed to Dr Johnson, who had taken an interest in Williams's experiments and assisted him in publishing his theory of longitude.

"[2] In August 1763, Boswell proudly made good his "title to be a privileged man" by being "carried by [Johnson] in the evening to drink tea with Miss Williams".

[4] Anna had annual gifts of money from acquaintances, including Lady Philipps of Picton Castle, an old family friend, but this income was supplemented by Johnson.

For example, he arranged for David Garrick to give a benefit performance of Aaron Hill's Merope at the Drury Lane theatre on 22 January 1756 "for a gentlewoman deprived of her sight".