William was 10 years old when he came with his parents to Pennsylvania (about 1712). When he was 21, he was farming a tract of land in Kennett Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, and in 1724 was on the tax lists at least until 1740.

About 1725, he bought land on a southerly branch of the Yellow Britches in York County Pennsylvania (his brother, John, also bought land in the same territory). William also purchased land in what was later to be called Delaware. In 1736 he was a resident of Willingtown (Wilmington) in Christiana Hundred of Newcastle County.

William appears a number of times in the records of the Newark/Kennett Monthly Meetings of the Quakers. His name appears on a petition appealing to the King of England asking for assistance in securing the disputed southern boundary of PA where it adjoined Lord Baltimore province of Maryland.

William died when he was 40 years old. He wills his land in Wilmington to Susannah and her sister Mary.