Williams was born near Hillsborough, North Carolina, on December 18, 1798.

He pursued an academic course and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

[3] Williams was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Congresses by Tennessee's thirteenth district.

[6] Williams' son and namesake (born 1830) was a Colonel in the Confederate army in the American Civil War who was killed at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862.

His grandson was John Sharp Williams, who also served in the American House and Senate.