Lady Williams

A chance seedling Maud Williams saved near Donnybrook in the 1930s; parent of Cripps Pink and Cripps Red

Lady Williams at the National Fruit Collection, Brogdale. National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, via Wikimedia Commons. Source; Open Government Licence v2.0.

Origin: Boronia Farm, near Donnybrook, Western Australia, Australia, about 1935
Parentage: Granny Smith × Yates Granny Smith is confirmed as a parent by SNP data (Muranty and others, 2020; Larsen and others, 2025), and Larsen and colleagues name Yates as the other. Earlier accounts suggested Jonathan or Rokewood as the second parent, with doubt. Which parent bore the seed is not known.
Uses: Dessert
Picked: November, in Brogdale, Kent, where the fruit rarely ripens fully
Keeps: Outstandingly well in cold storage, with a long shelf life
Skin: Whitish yellow, largely covered with a striped orange to bright red flush; little russet
Flesh: Cream, very firm, crisp and juicy
Flavour: Slightly acid
Ploidy: Diploid

History

Lady Williams came up by chance next to the tank stand beside the house on Boronia Farm, just outside Donnybrook in Western Australia, which Maud and Arthur Williams and their two sons worked from the 1930s³. The National Fruit Collection dates the seedling to about 1935¹, and Tancred and colleagues give 1935 as the year it was first seen to fruit². Maud Williams saw the worth of its firm, crisp, bright red fruit, which stored well, and saved the tree when it was nearly cut down; her son Bob recalled that she “stood it up again, bandaged it up and it took off again”³. Its name is what Lynette Green, a little girl on a neighbouring farm, called Maud³. The family sold the fruit at good prices and propagated trees from the original, which is now on the National Trust’s register³.

It was introduced commercially in 1968, the year Maud Williams died³, and most plantings were made after 1970². In the early 1970s the Western Australian Department of Agriculture began crossing it with Golden Delicious, and Cripps Pink and Cripps Red came of that work^2,3,6. By 1994 these offspring, less troubled in store by superficial scald and bitter pit, were superseding it².

The National Fruit Collection calls its parents unknown but thought to be Granny Smith and Jonathan, and records “Granny Smith x Jonathan or Rokewood”¹. Tancred and colleagues and Broomhall give Granny Smith and Rokewood, a Victorian apple of about 1870, as the likely parents^2,3. SNP data have since confirmed Granny Smith as a parent^4,5, and a 2025 pedigree study names the other as Yates, from a sample held by the Seed Savers Exchange in the United States⁵; Downing recorded an apple of that name as originating in Fayette County, Georgia⁷.

The fruit

The fruit is round and medium-sized, about 56 mm high and 65 mm wide, its whitish-yellow skin largely covered by a striped orange flush, with little russet¹. The cream flesh is firm, crisp and juicy¹. Tancred and colleagues describe a very firm, slightly acid apple that keeps outstandingly well in cold storage and has a long shelf life².

Growing

Lady Williams is picked very late, some three months after Granny Smith, and in cooler districts where the season is too short it often fails to mature². At Brogdale, Kent, it starts to flower around 2 May and is picked in mid-November, but it rarely reaches maturity in Britain¹. The patent for Cripps Pink credits Lady Williams with a strong upright habit, resistance to sunburn and a low need for winter chilling, all inherited by that offspring⁶. Lady Williams is diploid^4,5.

Uses

Lady Williams is a dessert apple¹, and its long storage made it suitable for export³.

Where the sources disagree

The second parent. Older accounts suggest Jonathan or Rokewood, with doubt^1,2,3; SNP data point to Yates⁵.
The place. The National Fruit Collection and Broomhall name Donnybrook^1,3; Tancred and colleagues name Paynedale².
Size. The National Fruit Collection rates the fruit medium¹, Tancred and colleagues large².

Family tree

Parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, as the entries in the atlas record them.

Lady Williams Australia, about 1935
- Parent Granny Smith Australia, 1868
  - Parent Ortley United States, by 1817
- Parent Yates

Offspring in the atlas

Cripps Pink × Golden Delicious; Australia, 1973
Cripps Red × Golden Delicious; Australia, 1973

Where Lady Williams came from. The lines lead to its parents: Granny Smith (Australia).

Sources

Lady Williams (accession 1978-136), National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent (Defra). Supports: "Originated as a chance seedling in Donnybrook, Western Australia, in about 1935"; "Parents unknown but thought to be Granny Smith and Jonathan"; parentage "Granny Smith x Jonathan or Rokewood"; firm, crisp flesh; "It rarely reaches maturity in the UK"; a dessert apple of medium size, globose, 56.13 mm high and 65.25 mm wide; whitish-yellow ground with a medium-high amount of striped orange over colour; low russet; crisp, juicy, cream flesh; 10% flowering on 2 May and picking in mid-November at Brogdale.
Thirty-seven apple varieties of Australian origin, Stephen J. Tancred, Aldo G. Zeppa and James N. Cummins, Fruit Varieties Journal 48(2): 118–125, American Pomological Society, 1994-04. Supports: Lady Williams "a very firm slightly acid apple that keeps outstandingly well in cold storage and has a long shelf life", named after Mrs Maud Williams, who nurtured it on the family orchard; harvested some three months after Granny Smith and often failing to mature in cooler districts where the season is too short; most plantings after 1970; superseded by its offspring Cripps Pink and Cripps Red (named by their trade names), which are less prone to the storage disorders superficial scald and bitter pit (p. 121); Table 1 (p. 122): pedigree "?Granny Smith X ?Rokewood", the "?" marking an uncertain but most likely parent; site and year of origin "Paynedale, WA. 1935", the year being that of first observed fruiting; very late season; size large; Rokewood from Dereel, Victoria, about 1870.
Hidden women of history: how 'Lady' Williams founded a great Australian apple, Susan Broomhall, The Conversation, 2023-01-17. Supports: the original tree on Boronia Farm, just outside Donnybrook, listed on the register of the National Trust; Maud and Arthur Williams and their sons Bob and Ron working the orchard from the 1930s; the tree, with bright red apples, springing up unexpectedly next to the tank stand beside the house; firm, crisp fruit suited to long storage and to export; good prices and trees propagated from the original; a chance seedling whose likely parents were Granny Smith and Rokewood; nearly cut down and saved by Maud, who "stood it up again, bandaged it up and it took off again" (her son Bob's recollection); the name taken from what Lynette Green, a little girl on a neighbouring farm, called Maud; introduced commercially in 1968, the year Maud died; in the early 1970s the Western Australian Department of Agriculture's new breeding programme, led by John Cripps, crossing it with Golden Delicious.
Using whole-genome SNP data to reconstruct a large multi-generation pedigree in apple germplasm, Hélène Muranty and others, BMC Plant Biology 20: 2, with Additional files 1 and 6, 2020. Supports: Granny Smith inferred as a parent of Lady Williams (Additional file 6, Table S5: a parent–offspring pair with 10 Mendelian errors, below the threshold of 600, oriented by the documented parentage "Granny Smith x Jonathan (or Rokewood)"); Lady Williams diploid (Table S1).
Cultivar fingerprinting and SNP-based pedigree reconstruction in Danish heritage apple cultivars utilizing genotypic data from multiple germplasm collections in the world, Bjarne Larsen and others, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 72: 2397, with supplementary Tables S2, S3 and S5, 2025. Supports: Table S5: Lady Williams's SNP-confirmed parents Granny Smith and Yates; Lady Williams diploid; Tables S2 and S3: the Yates genotype from accession USA_SSE0090 of the Seed Savers Exchange, USA.
US Plant Patent 7,880: Apple tree Cripps Pink cultivar, John E. Cripps, assigned to the Western Australia Department of Agriculture; United States Patent and Trademark Office; Google Patents, 1992-06-09. Supports: Lady Williams an "unpatented chance seedling discovered in Western Australia" and a parent of Cripps Pink, whose sunburn resistance, low chilling requirement and strong upright growth habit were inherited from Lady Williams.
The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America, p. 418: Yates, A. J. Downing, revised by Charles Downing, John Wiley & Sons, Internet Archive, 1900. Supports: Yates "Originated in Fayette Co., Ga."; a very upright tree, a great bearer and good keeper; fruit small, whitish yellow striped with red, in use "March to May".