Due to this inheritance, John Williams the Third was able to engage himself in his mineralogical studies and amassed a collection of over 10,000 specimens.  Williams became famous for his collection which was visited, separately, by the future Kings Louis XVIII and Charles X of France. 

When he died, childless, his estate was inherited by his brother, Michael Williams, who purchased Caerhays Castle and who transferred his brother’s mineral collection to Caerhays before it was further distributed between the Natural History Museum, British Museum, Royal Cornwall Museum (Truro) and the Robert Hunt Memorial Collection in the University of Falmouth.

C.C.Rogers (March 1^st) was a member of the Williams family and Rogers spent much of her childhood at Scorrier House.

Examples of Williams’ collection of Cornish minerals include torbernerite (hydrated copper uranium(VI) phosphate) from the Old Gunnislake Mine.  The presence of uranium demonstrates the rich mineralogy of the county, which also contains the largest reserves of lithium and the second largest reserves of tungsten in the world.