The Unredeemed Captive’s Descendants – Eleazer Williams

The story of Eleazer Williams comes from the Mohawk side of the family. Eunice Williams had three children, two daughters and one son. One daughter had a son, Thomas (Thorakwaneken), who married an Indian woman named Mary Ann Konwatewenteta in 1779. This couple had 13 children, among them a son called Eleazer, probably born around 1787, though the birth is unrecorded.  At the age of 12, Eleazer was placed in the care of a Williams relative in Longmeadow, Mass, to be educated (for three years by Enoch Hale, brother of Nathan), and he decided to become a Congregational minister. Young Eleazer’s desire was thwarted, however, by relatives who thought it unseemly for an Indian to assume such a lofty position. Undeterred, he joined the Episcopal church, to become a missionary to the Oneidas in Wisconsin. He established a home there, marrying 14-year-old Madeleine Jourdain, daughter of a blacksmith and a woman of Indian descent. She came with 4,800 acres of land that would become known as the Williams Tract. Williams was ordained a deacon in 1826, but by 1832, he lost the support of both the Oneida community and the Episcopal hierarchy.

At this point, Eleazer’s life took a bizarre turn. Following a chance encounter with Prince de Joinville, son of King Louis Philippe, who was touring America, Eleazer began claiming that he was neither a Mohawk or a Williams. No, he averred, the Prince had been searching for him in order to inform him of his true parentage. Eleazer was none other than the Lost Dauphin, son of the executed King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, secreted out of France as a small child and given to the Indians of Kahnawake to raise as their own. The Prince asked Eleazer to sign a document renouncing his claim to the throne. Shocked, Eleazer refused to abdicate. Although he avoided actually claiming royal blood, his story soon spread. Eleazer labored to create this impression, tricking his mother into signing a paper saying the he was adopted, and publishing articles under the name Charles B. DeSailville. He even had a portrait painted that accentuated his Caucasian features. Eleazer’s fame spread, particularly after an article about him appeared in Putnam’s Magazine under the title, “Have we a Bourbon among us?”

To no avail. Eleazer spent his final years in poverty, living on the reservation at St. Regis (Akwesasne). He wrote a number of histories in which he purported to present the Mohawk point of view, but analysis suggests that at least a portion of what he wrote pertains to traditions of his own creation. Eleazer Williams died in 1858, but controversy over his claim did not end there. Mark Twain included a parody based on his claims by incorporating a character called “The Lost Dauphin” into Huckleberry Finn, and in 1937, a short film entitled King Without a Crown was made.

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Mark Twain lampooned him (and forever immortalized him) by featuring a self-described “Lost Dauphin” character in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1884.

3 thoughts on “The Unredeemed Captive’s Descendants – Eleazer Williams

  1. Nicolas Reynolds says:

    Just and point of clarificiation. This article states that “Undeterred, he joined the Episcopal church, to become a missionary to the Oneidas in Wisconsin.” This is a bit of a misrepresentation. Eleazer was a missionary to the Oneidas of New York, and he was one of the key proponents of moving, not just the Oneida, but all of the Six Nations to Wisconsin. He was ministering to the Oneidas for quite some time before the removal to Wisconsin. He recieved money from the Ogden Land Company as well as the Government as payment for removing the Oneida from their ancestrial homelands in New York State. He also recieved money to start schools in the both New York and Wisconsin, the later of which he never did and used the money for personal gain.

  2. Eliezer Williams is not of royal Bourbon blood coz he`s a fake, impersonator. On his feature you can see alot of Mohawk blood with little or no similarities of the more radiant,blond, caucasian lost Dauphin of France.

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