Williams succeeded his father to the county seat in 1802, after an expensive contest during which he, a relative newcomer to the county, and his wife, said to be foolish, fond of drink and a tradesman’s daughter, were exposed to much scurrility by the squib writers. In fact, he owed his seat to the interest of Lord Dynevor, the leader of the Reds in the county, who had opposed his father in 1796. He complained bitterly of the expense of the election, which prevented him from visiting Edwinsford for fear of bills and thus from commanding some volunteers, instead of being in the Devon militia. Moreover, his wife found that ‘a London life does not agree with him like the country’.
In Parliament he gave an independent support to government, like his father, who was thought to be ambitious for a peerage. No speech is known, but he was active on committees for local bills and was praised in the local press for his personal efforts in March 1805 to prevent additional taxation of horses in husbandry. He was likewise hostile to the iron tax in May 1806.
Williams could not afford another contest in 1806 and stood down, not without criticizing his successor Paxton for his pro-Catholic sympathies. He had hoped the freeholders would ‘remember the friend that stood forward to save them from the heavy taxes, viz horses, salt and iron, two of which he carried’. In 1807, though still short of funds, he hoped to be put up with Dynevor’s support, but the latter transferred his backing to Lord Robert Seymour: there was some sympathy for Williams who was seen as the victim of a ‘job’, rejected by the Reds because he was not sufficiently servile to ministers.
His son obtained the county seat as a reformer in 1831. Williams died 3 Dec. 1829; unlike his father, he spent more time at Edwinsford than at Clovelly, though he was an improving landlord in both places.