Henry Williams (alias Cromwell)

Sir Henry Williams, alias Cromwell (died 1604) was a Knight of the Shire for Huntingdonshire and a grandfather of Oliver Cromwell.

Sir Henry Williams, of Welsh descent, the eldest son and heir of Sir Richard Williams, was highly esteemed by Queen Elizabeth I, who knighted him in 1563, and did him the honour of sleeping at his seat of Hinchingbrooke, on 18 August 1564, upon her return from visiting the University of Cambridge.

He was in the House of Commons in 1563, as one of the Knights of the Shire for Huntingdonshire, and was four times appointed Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, by Elizabeth, viz. in the 7, 13, 22, and 34 years of her reign; and in the 20, she nominated him a commissioner with others, to inquire concerning the draining of The Fens through Cloughs Cross and so to the sea.

He made Huntingdonshire the entire place of his country residence, living at Ramsey Abbey in the summer, and Hinchingbrooke in the winter; he repaired, if not built the manor-house at Ramsey, and made it one of his seats. Mark Noble comments that he had heard that the house of Ramsey was only the lodge of that magnificent pile, and converted by Sir Henry into a dwelling-house. Sir Henry also built Hinchingbrooke House adjoining to the nunnery at Hinchingbrooke, and upon the bow windows there he put the arms of his family, with those of several others to whom he was allied.

Sir Henry lived to a good old age, dying in the beginning of the year 1604. He was buried in All Saints' Church, in Huntingdon, on 7 January. An indication of the funeral pomp used at his interment can be found by the charges of the heralds, which were the same as those incurred at the burial of some of the greatest knights of his day.

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