ACAD (Venn) (ID: WLN659J); History of Parliament Online (see link below); ODNB (Article: 29571); Hannah Yip.
ACAD (Venn) (ID: WLN659J); History of Parliament Online (see link below); ODNB (Article: 29571)
Joseph Williamson was born on 25 July 1633 and baptised on 4 August 1633. He attended St Bees School, Cumbria, before matriculating at Queen's College, Oxford on 18 November 1650. Williamson graduated B.A. on 2 February 1654, proceeding M.A. by diploma on 11 November 1657. He became a Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford in the same year. He became Keeper of the King's Library at Whitehall in December 1661. On 25 November 1664, Williamson was admitted at the Middle Temple and was called to the bar on the same day. He served as Editor of the Oxford Gazette in 1666. Joseph Williamson was knighted on 24 January 1672 and was awarded the degree of D.C.L. on 27 June 1674. From 1674 until 1679, he was Secretary of State, and from 1677 until 1680, he was President of the Royal Society. Williamson died on 3 October 1701 at Cobham Hall, Kent; he was buried at Westminster Abbey.