Alexander Williams (artist)
The Williams had been hatters for a number of generations,[3] dating back to an ancestor who settled in Ireland in the 1600s from Glamorganshire who was a felter.[2] With the decline in his father's hatting business, Alexander and his brother Edward (1848-1905) started a sideline in taxidermy, founding Williams & Son, Dublin.[3] Both the hatters and the taxidermy shops co-existed at 1 Dame Street for a time and began what the ornithologist Richard M. Barrington described in the Irish Naturalist magazine as "the battle of the hats and birds", remarking that: In 1866, a fire broke out in the taxidermy workshop which destroyed the family business and killed six residents of the adjoining house.Operating from 2 Dame Street, the business became a success from the 1870s, with private individuals and institutions such as the Natural History Museum, Dublin among their clients."[7] He remained largely self-taught, attending only the Royal Dublin Society night school for some lessons in drawing and painted in oils and watercolours.In 1899, Williams took a lease on a ruined cottage and three acres of land on the edge of Bleanaskill Bay, Achill Island.