In 1877 L. A. Morrison began a machinery brokerage business in Toronto. In 1881 the business was acquired by A. R. Williams. In 1883 the Soho Machine Works on Esplanade Street in Toronto was in financial difficulty and at some time between 1884 and '85 they were acquired by A. R. Williams. Williams used the Soho Works' machine-shop facilities to rebuild machinery for resale. This business was successful and Williams expanded aggressively until they were located in all the major eastern Canadian cities by the 1890s; they would expand westward in the coming decades.

In 1895 or '96 Williams reorganized as the A. R. Williams Machinery Co., and by 1901 it had become A. R. Williams Machinery Co., Ltd. Much later, in 1955, they were acquired by Scottish machine-tool conglomerate Staveley Iron & Coal Co., which would eventually change its own name to Staveley Industries. By the 1970s A. R. Williams had offices in Halifax, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, and Victoria. In 1984 the Alberta operations were acquired by Arnie Charbonneau and those operations were incorporated as A. R. Williams Materials Handling Ltd.

None of the above would be of much interest to this website, which is focused on manufacturers rather than distributors and retailers. However, we have seen several machines, including a large bandsaw and a large jointer, with the Williams name cast into them; the bandsaw also had an A. R. Williams plate on it. Although A. R. Williams Machinery were a dealer, they may have manufactured the above-mentioned machines as they had the machining capabilities in-house and could have farmed out the castings.

Many of the Williams-branded metalworking machines we have seen were made by the London Machine Tool Co. A. R. Williams advertised heavily in Canadian Machinery during World War I; most of the ads made clear the true maker of the featured product. One ad features the "Williams turret lathe" with the Williams name cast into it, and presumably this was a machine made by or for A. R. Williams Machinery Co.

From 1916-10-12 Canadian Machinery

During World War II, and likely for longer, the Brantford-based Williams Tool Corp. of Canada, Ltd. was an A. R. Williams subsidiary manufacturing a full line (16 models) of shell lathes as well as presses, milling machines, pipe and bolt threading machines, chucks, vises, and bench grinders. More research is needed to determine the years of operation of Williams Tool Corp.

Manufacturers Represented by A. R. Williams

Based on machines we have seen in addition to articles and ads listing authorized distributors, the following companies are believed to have been represented by A. R. Williams. This list is far from complete.

• Canada Machinery Corp., Ltd., Galt, ON. This successor to MacGregor Gourlay continued to use A. R. Williams as a reseller.
• Major Harper & Son, Whitby, ON. From the late 1800s until 1917 this firm's Eclipse and New Eclipse planer-matchers were sold under the A. R. Williams brand.
• London Machine Tool Co., London, ON. In 1889 this firm's metalworking machinery was distributed exclusively through A. R. Williams.
• MacGregor, Gourlay Co., Galt, ON. A. R. Williams began in 1879 as an agent for this firm (actually, for MacGregor Gourlay's predecessor, Cant, Gourlay & Co.). We have seen numerous machines from Cant Gourlay and MacGregor Gourlay that carried an A. R. Williams name plate.
• D. McKenzie Machinery Co., Guelph, ON. A. R. Williams had an especially close relationship with this firm: at one time T. A. Hollinrake was simultaneously president of both firms.
• Standard Modern Lathes, Inc., Toronto, ON. In 1955 Scottish conglomerate Staveley Iron & Coal Co. acquired both Standard Modern and A. R. Williams.
• Waterous Engine Works Co., Brantford, ON.
• Zucker & Levett & Loeb Co., New York, NY. A polishing and grinding arbor from this exceedingly obscure maker has been seen with a plate for A. R. Williams & Co.
• W. F. & John Barnes Co., Rockford, IL. In 1919 A. R. Williams advertised that they carried in stock a complete line of Barnes drilling machines. (We originally identified this ad as being for drills from Barnes Drill Co., but that firm was only making geared-head drills and the ad shows a belt-drive machine.)
• E. W. Bliss Co., Brooklyn, NY.
• C. C. Bradley & Son, Inc., Syracuse, NY.
• South Bend Lathe Works, South Bend, IN. A. R. Williams was a reseller.
• W. F. Wells, Inc., Three Rivers, MI. We have seen a horizontal bandsaw from this firm also bearing an A. R. Williams plaque.

Information Sources

• 1891 book Toronto, Old and New.

  About the year 1840, three bright young mechanics from the Soho Machine Works at Belfast, Ireland, established the Soho Machine Works, Toronto. After passing through three or four ownerships, the establishment, which is located on the Esplanade, east of the Union Station, came into the hands of the present proprietor, Mr. A. R. Williams. The chief work done by this enterprising house is the refitting of machinery in connection with his brokerage machine business. The brokerage department was commenced in 1877 by Mr. L. A. Morrison, and was acquired by Mr. Williams, in 1881. It now covers all the important lines of machinery used in the manufacture of wood and iron, together with power of different classes and appliances used in connection with machinery. Local agencies have been established in all the important commercial centres, and a large staff of travelling salesmen keep the establishment fully supplied with orders.

• A website with photographs of abandoned Toronto industrial sites has some lovely photographs of the 'A.R. Williams Machinery Company, Liberty Street Plant', near King & Strachan. This building is quite popular with photographers, and numerous photos can be found online by doing a search for "A. R. Williams Machinery".
• The Barkerville Historic Town Library and Archives, in Barkerville, BC, has an archive of correspondence from Cariboo Gold Quartz Mining Co., Ltd. Included is correspondence between CGQ and A. R. Williams Machinery Co. of Vancouver. The correspondence dates from Dec. 1932 through July 1933.
• An entry in the Photo Index shows a Clark & Demill jointer that also has an A. R. Williams plaque on it—Williams was the retailer, and given the fraction of Clark & Demill machines that have an A. R. Williams plaque on them, Williams was a major dealer for them.
• A history of the Vancouver-based Beedie Group mentions that they bought woodworking machinery from A. R. Williams Machinery in the mid-1940s.
• A 1970s catalog from A. R. Williams Co. lists their locations: "Halifax, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria".
• An online resume says that the person had been an inside sales representative for this company, 1979-1980.
• McMaster University, in Hamilton, ON, has an archive of Copp-Clark correspondence that includes "agreements and correspondence" with A. R. Williams Machinery; the material dates from 1911-1914.
• Thanks to correspondent Mike Loader, who communicated to us the results of his research on the history of A. R. Williams. "The change from Soho Machine Works to A.R. Williams Machinery Company happened circa 1895-1896... The 1895 and earlier Toronto directories list Soho Machine Works on the Esplanade run by A.R. Williams but from 1897 and onward Soho is gone and A.R. Williams Machinery Co. on Front Street is listed. The 1896 directory is unavailable so I can't nail it down further... Also, you don't have a date for when he acquired Soho Machine Works but I believe it to be around 1884-1885 since he's listed as the owner in the 1885 directory and the data was typically 6 months old by then. There's an 1883 newspaper piece on Soho being closed due to financial trouble and various newspaper ads afterward with a trustee selling equipment but I couldn't find a piece on his acquiring it."
• Seen on eBay: a 12-page WW2 era catalog from Williams Tool Corp. of Canada, Ltd., featuring their lineup of single-purpose shell lathes. The last page of the catalog lists their other products manufactured.