[f. the name William + -ITE1. In sense 1 = mod.L. Guil-, Wilhelmita, F. Guillemite, etc.]
† 1. A member of an order of Augustinian hermits: = GUILLEMIN. Obs.
[1549. Chaloner, Erasm. on Folly, N j b. Those Augustines, these Guilhelmites, those Iacobites.]
1668. J. Wilson, trans. Erasmus’ Praise of Folly, 109. These Williamites, and those Jacobines.
1693. trans. d’Emillianne’s Hist. Monast. Orders, vii. 48–9. Heremitical Congregations, which were spread in several places under different names, and especially of the Williamites, and Zambonites.
2. A supporter of William of Orange (King William III.): opp. to JACOBITE sb.4 Also attrib.
1689. [see JACOBITE sb.4].
1706. Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), I. 193. Upon ye Revolution he grew a mighty Williamite.
1854. J. C. O’Callaghan, Hist. Irish Brigades, I. 209. To oppose the Williamite invasion under the Marshal Duke of Schonberg.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvi. III. 697. The infamous triumvirs who had been, in the short space of a year, violent Williamites and violent Jacobites, became Williamites again.
1901. Athenæum, 16 Nov., 654/3. [Fitzgerald Molloy] is as much a Jacobite in his sympathies as Macaulay was a Williamite.
