William Willett, Jr.

“A Legacy in Bourbon”

William Willett Jr. was born in 1743 into an affluent family in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Colonial America. He was the second son of the fifteen children of William Willett Sr., a prosperous landowner and tavern keeper who had married Jr.’s mother, Mary Griffith, in 1738. In keeping with family tradition, young William learned the art of distilling under his father’s guidance, blending grains into the potent rye whiskeys for which Maryland was already becoming famous. Though the Willetts also crafted pewterware, it was the distilling side of the business that captured William Jr.’s imagination and ambition.

William Jr. married three times, first to Ann Wheat in about 1760, but Ann died in 1777 after providing Willett with three children. He then married Mary Simmons, but Mary died in 1798, having had 5 children with Willett. Five years later, Willett married Catherine Wathen in 1803, and it was from Catherine that George Edward Willett was born in 1805. It was George who carried on the distilling tradition of his father and later passed the craft on to his son.

During this time, the American colonies had entered the Revolutionary War. While there is no direct record confirming William Willett Jr.’s participation in the War, almost all able-bodied men of his age served in local militias, supporting the Patriot cause, and Willett, as well as his older sons, were likely involved in supplying whiskey or were involved in local Patriot defense, or both.

After the Revolutionary War, like many frontier families, the Willetts became part of the early wave of settlers moving west. His later relocation to Kentucky would follow the broader migration trend as Americans pushed into new territories west of the Appalachians after independence was won. Willett Jr. had been facing diminishing returns from Maryland’s depleted crops and he took advantage of the better farmland and growing opportunities in the newly minted state of Kentucky. In 1792, the same year Kentucky entered the Union as a new state, William Jr. packed his family and relocated to Nelson County, the heart of the future Bluegrass bourbon region. This journey marked a turning point. In leaving behind Maryland's established rye-heavy distilling operations, William Jr. embarked on a path that would help shape the foundations of corn-based bourbon in Kentucky.

In the new Kentucky territory, Willett continued practicing the family craft. Later distilling endeavors by his descendants would cite his very mash bill recipes used during this time as their origin. As head of the family operation, he passed down both land and whiskey-making tradition to his progeny, laying foundations that would blossom over time. His embrace of Kentucky's fertile environment and booming spirit culture speaks to a man forward-thinking and rooted in family stewardship, traits that still endure in Willett Distillery’s ethos.

By passing the distilling mantle to his grandson, John David, Willett also set in motion an intergenerational legacy. John David would marry Mary Alice Moore in about 1874, and later partner in a few distilling enterprises, most notably including the Bardstown‑area firms Moore, Willett & Frenke and Morton’s Spring Distillery. That next generation, in turn, nurtured its own successors: A. L. “Thompson” Willett and his brother Johnny built and operated the modern Willett Distilling Company in Bardstown in 1936, continuing the family legacy into the 20th century.

Today, Willett Distillery traces its distilling heritage—over 230 years—to William  Willett  Jr.'s bold decision to cross the Appalachian ranges in 1792. The original mash bill he learned and refined became the basis for Old Bardstown bourbon and remains a symbolic link to that early initiative. Through generations of Willett distillers, the blend of tradition, family craft, and bold vision endures, echoing William Jr.’s footsteps, which laid the groundwork for what would become one of America’s most enduring distilling dynasties.

William Willett, Jr., died in April of 1814 and is buried in Nelson County, Kentucky. His pivotal role in laying the foundation for over two centuries of family whiskey-making is undeniable. Apprenticed in Maryland by his father, William Jr. took that knowledge west to Kentucky, thereby setting into motion a lineage of distillers who would shape some of America’s most celebrated bourbons. In every sip of an Old Bardstown or Pot Still Reserve, one tastes not only craftsmanship but also the legacy of a man who bridged generations as well as geographies to sustain a family’s distilling dream.

Sources:

• Willett Distillery Official Website: https://www.willettdistillery.com

• “The History of Willett Distillery,” Bourbon Trail Magazine, 2015

• Kentucky Bourbon Heritage Foundation Archives

• Interviews with Willett family members, Kentucky Historical Society, 2018

Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee, and Jim Silliman, Bardstown, Kentucky