Eliza was the eleventh child of John Nichols and Ann Pugh. She was born on 8 June 1819 at Sydney. She was baptised on 14 September 1819 at St Phillip's Church of England, Sydney. By this time the family had moved from Prospect to Sydney. Eliza was baptised again with her sister Sarah on 4 January 1829 at Christ Church, Newcastle.
James Williams, her future husband, son of John Williams and Ann Haywood was born on 22 February 1818.He was baptised on 7 July 1818 at St Phillip's Church of England, Sydney. John Williams had arrived as a convict on the Indefatigable in 1815. John Williams, a shoemaker and inn keeper, went into business with John Kellick (who married Eliza's sister Ann Nichols). They were both owners of the vessels Fanny and Ann which traded between Sydney, Kiama and the Shoalhaven. Eliza Nichols was the witness to her sister Susannah Nichols' marriage to Charles Kinsela on 7 March 1837. She was able to sign her name then and also signed when she herself married James Williams on 28 September 1840. Of all her family only her brother John Pugh Nichols could do the same. James supported his family as a carpenter.
Their first child, Ann was born at Pyrmont on 28 July 1841 but died on 28 October 1841, aged three months. Jane Eliza was born at Pyrmont on 10 November 1842. John was born on 29 October 1845. John died, aged 22 months, on 12 September 1847. Emma was baptised on 8 October 1848 according to the rites of the Wesleyan Church. James was born on 2 November 1851 and Clara on 21 January1857, both at Sydney. Lydia was also born at Sydney on 27 February 1860.
James Williams' failing eyesight may have led to his decision to move to the south coast as a dairy farmer. He would have had some connection with the area through his brothers-in-law John Kellick and John Pugh Nichols as well as his father. Good friends of the family, the Latimers had moved there around 1854. Ruth was born at Dapto on 29 April 1863. Lydia died in Sydney on 23 March 1865, aged only five. The Latimers had moved to Bega and James later joined them there although it appears Eliza remained in Sydney with their four daughters.
Eliza married Noble Latimer in Sydney on 3 December 1867. Her mother and unmarried sisters moved to Marrickville in 1871. James Williams died at Bega on 14 December 1872. By 1877 Eliza was living at Chippendale where Clara and Emma married. Her son James, who had worked as a dairy farmer near Bega, returned to Sydney and bought a house in Marrickville where he lived with his mother and his sister Ruth until her marriage in May 1884. Eliza Williams died from tuberculosis on 6 October 1885. She was buried at Rookwood in the Old Methodist Section.
ELIZA AND JAMES WILLIAMS' CHILDREN
Ann Matilda (1841-1841)
Jane Eliza (10.11.1842 died on 10.12.1918) married Noble Latimer in 1867
John (1845-1847)
Emma (1848-1926) married John Nunn in 1877
James (1851-1929) married Mary Elizabeth Bishop in 1886
Clara (1857-1919) married Thomas Osborne in 1877
Lydia (1860-1865)
Ruth (1863-1924) married Duncan Roy in 1884