Crippled by disease at 15, with a leg permanently bent at the knee, Robert McAlpin Williamson wore a pegleg which, like his two natural legs, was covered with his trousers, earning him the nickname "Three-Legged Willie." He settled in Texas in 1827 to practice law and at Fort Anahuac in 1832 made a heroic stand against commandant Juan Davis Bradburn, who had jailed his client and friend Patrick C. Jack and William Barret Travis. Bradburn and his associates made a false agreement to exchange Jack and Travis for Mexican soldiers captured earlier by Williamson's men. Following a confrontation, Bradburn finally gave up the Texans, resigned his command, and left Fort Anahuac. After this betrayal, Williamson took up the cause of Texas independence, fighting first with words and then with arms at the Battle of San Jacinto. He later served as a district judge, as a justice of the first Supreme Court of the Republic from 1836 to 1839, and as a lawmaker in the 5th through 9th Congresses from 1840 to 1845. In a noted episode, a ruffian is said to have drawn a Bowie knife and declared, "This is the law," but Judge Williamson covered it with his pistol and replied, "This is the constitution which overrules the law."