Robert McAlpin Williamson

Judge Williamson spent more years writing laws than rulings. Voters sent him to the Republic's House for the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Congresses, to the Senate for the Eighth, where he lost a contested seat, and to the House again for the Ninth. After annexation he served in the first two state Senates and left office in March 1850. He lost a race for Congress that year and one for lieutenant governor in 1851, then retired to a farm near Independence to gather material for a history of the events leading to the Revolution. His health failed after 1857.

What the plaque says

Robert McAlpin Williamson (1804-1859) Crippled by disease at 15, with a leg permanently bent at the knee, wore a pegleg which like his two natural legs was covered with his trousers. Hence he was nicknamed "Three-Legged Willie." Settled in Texas in 1827 to practice law. Here at Fort Anahuac in 1832, he made an heroic stand against the commandant, Juan Davis Bradburn, who had jailed his client and friend, Patrick C. Jack, and William Barret Travis (later Alamo commander). Bradburn and associates made a false agreement to exchange Jack and Travis for Mexican soldiers captured earlier by Williamson's men. Following a confrontation, Bradburn at last gave up the Texans, resigned his command, and left Fort Anahuac. But after this betrayal, Williamson took up cause of Texas independence, fighting with words and then with arms at Battle of San Jacinto. A district judge and a justice of first supreme court of the Republic (1836-39), he also served as a lawmaker, 5th throug 9th congresses (1840-45). In a noted episode, a ruffian is said to have drawn a Bowie knife, saying, "This is the law," but Judge williamson covered it with his pistol, declaring, "This is the constitution which overrules the law." (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 24 mi
  The 1,200 acres of coastal prairie and marsh where the Texas Revolution ended in eighteen minutes, and the 567-foot shaft of fossil-studded limestone that has stood over them since 1939.
• Space Center Houston — 28 mi
  The visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, with flown capsules, a shuttle replica riding a 747, and tram tours to Mission Control and a Saturn V.

More markers nearby

• Fort Anahuac — steps away
• Juan Davis Bradburn — steps away
• William Barret Travis — steps away
• On this Site First Known as Perry's Point — steps away