'The Cottager's Return' seems to have been a favourite subject of Williams. A small panel version of the subject measuring 10 x 13in. and painted in 1778 was sold at Christie's in 1924, and a 'Cottager's Family' was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1787. A painting of the same title as the present picture was sold in New York in 1920, and yet another, with several differences, painted in 1794, is illustrated as fig. 222 in Colonel M. Grant, Old English Landscape Painters, III, 1958.

Little is known of Williams' career. His first exhibits were portraits of the Mayor and Chamberlain of Norwich, but he seems to have moved to London, sending in paintings from several addresses to the Royal Academy, before finally settling in Bath.