Christopher Harris Williams

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. He studied law, was admitted to the bar about 1820, and practiced law.[2] He married Jane Allison on December 9, 1819.[3]

Williams was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Congresses by Tennessee's thirteenth district. He served from March 4, 1837 to March 3, 1843.[4] He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1842 to the Twenty-eighth Congress.

After the number of districts held by Tennessee had been reduced, Williams was elected by Tennessee's eleventh district to the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses. He served from March 4, 1849 to March 3, 1853.[5] He was not a candidate for renomination in 1852. He resumed the practice of law in Lexington, Tennessee.

Williams died in Lexington on November 27, 1857. He is interred at Lexington Cemetery.[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.

• United States Congress. "Christopher Harris Williams (id: W000493)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.