[1][3] He is an alleged, but unproven great-grandson of Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, making him third cousin to the English monarchs Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

[4] He was heavily involved in the Dissolution of the Monasteries and obtained Thame Abbey and its lands, and the Priory of Elsing Spittle in Cripplegate, London.

Under Edward VI his accounts as Master of the Jewel House and as Treasurer of the Court of Augmentations were audited and he was censured and imprisoned.

Williams died at Ludlow Castle on 14 October 1559 and his body was brought back to Rycote to lie in state in the great chamber of his mansion, then taken to Thame for burial.

[10] By Elizabeth Bledlow, Williams had three sons, John, Henry and Francis, and two daughters, Isabel, who married Sir Richard Wenman,[10] and Margery, who married Henry Norreys, 1st Baron Norris of Rycote.

[12] She survived him, and later married Sir William Drury, and James Croft of Weston, Oxfordshire.