{{Short description|English official and letter writer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}'''George James Williams''' (1719–1805), known familiarly as '''Gilly Williams''', was an English official, known as a wit and letter writer.
==Life== Born at [[Denton, Lincolnshire]], he was a younger son of [[William Peere Williams (1664–1736)|William Peere Williams]] and Anne, daughter of [[Sir George Hutchins]]. Through the influence of [[Lord North]], who married in 1756 a daughter of Williams's sister, he obtained on 8 November 1774 the post of Receiver-General of Excise, which he held until 1801.<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Williams, George James|volume=61}}</ref> [[File:George Augustus Selwyn; Richard Edgcumbe, 2nd Baron Edgcumbe; George James Williams by Henry Graves.jpg|thumb|George Selwyn, Richard Edgcumbe, and George James Williams, engraving by James Scott, after [[Joshua Reynolds]]]] Williams made up, with [[George Augustus Selwyn (politician)|George Selwyn]], [[Richard Edgcumbe, 2nd Baron Edgcumbe|Richard Edgecumbe]] and [[Horace Walpole]], a group who met at stated periods in the year at [[Strawberry Hill House|Strawberry Hill]]. He also met his friends for "wit and whist" in Selwyn's Thursday Club at the Star and Garter in [[Pall Mall, London|Pall Mall]]. He dropped out of his old circle, and little is heard of him after 1770. He died in Cleveland Court, St. James's, near the house where his friend Selwyn had lived, on 28 November 1805.<ref name="DNB"/>
==Family== Williams married, on 30 July 1752, Diana, daughter of [[William Coventry, 5th Earl of Coventry]], who appears to have died early without issue.<ref name="DNB"/>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
;Attribution {{DNB|wstitle=Williams, George James|volume=61}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Gilly}} [[Category:1719 births]] [[Category:1805 deaths]] [[Category:18th-century English writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Lincolnshire]]