In the fall of 1824, a grant of 200 acres (81 ha) in the township of Esquesing was made by the Crown to John Butler Muirhead.

Charles Williams became the leading figure in the community, and by the mid-1860s, he was proprietor of the flour, woollen, and saw mills, as well as a justice of the peace in Williamsburg.

Members of the Williams family worked as a blacksmith, cabinetmaker, leather tanner, and general store proprietor.

Charles' son Benajah became the proprietor, and rebuilt it two-and-a-half stories and powered by a 40-horsepower Leffel water wheel.

His debts had risen to the cost of rebuilding the factory and more, and in January 1878, the Toronto Globe advertised the sale of the mill.

Because of the shortage of labour, twelve English automatic machines were installed; and with the care of two boys, they knit 60 dozen pairs of socks a day.

[3] An Irish millwright named James Bradley bought the old Tweedle Saw Mill upstream from Benjah, along with five carding machines and the largest picker.

[12] Famed Group of Seven artist A. J. Casson often spent summers in Glen Williams, which he used as a base to paint local scenes.

[13] The village itself is the subject of Casson's 1938 oil on canvas, "Street in Glen Williams", a leafy, autumnal portrait of a quiet road in the hamlet, which sold at auction in Toronto on June 1, 2010 for a record $542,800, including buyer's premium, the highest such valuation ever accorded a Casson canvas.

Casson, who joined the Group of Seven in 1926, "recorded small towns in every season," Canadian art critic and historian Paul Duval wrote in 1980, "and Street in Glen Williams is unquestionably his key autumn portrayal.

[16] Today Glen Williams is a predominantly residential community that provides housing for residents employed in other areas.

The Williams Mill provides studio space for artists of various media including ceramics, drawing, fibre, glass, jewellery, printmaking, sculpture and offers visitors the opportunity to interact directly with the artists, experience their work in progress and purchase a variety of art.

In addition to its function as an artist's co-operative, Glen Williams Glass regularly welcomes non-members to the studio.

Sheridan Nurseries operates their "Glen Williams Farm & Distribution Centre" along the hamlet's eastern boundary.

The 370 ha (910 acres) farm is their main growing facility and produces more than 800 hardy nursery stock varieties, ranging from evergreens, deciduous trees and shrubs.

Glen Williams Minor Softball, still played in the park, was established in 1964 by the local hamlet's people.

Open for public use to have a picnic, organize a friendly game of baseball or listen to the sounds of Credit River flowing by.

The earliest stone marks the resting-place of Ira, Elizabeth and Benajah's son, who died in 1833 just eleven days after his fifteenth birthday.

His son Charles must have felt that the time had come for the cemetery to be established on a more regular basis, and on December 22 he made over the land for a public burying-ground, "in consideration of the sum of one shilling of lawful money of the Province of Canada to him in hand paid."

Governed by the Halton District School Board with input from the local Glen Williams Parent Council, it is currently home to approximately 220 children.

The first frame (as distinct from log) school in the township was built in Glen Williams 1837, replaced by a large, one-room building in 1852.

[29] The Village Montessori & Child Care is located in Glen Williams at 533 Main Street and is locally owned and operated.