William was born at least two years prior the establishment of Jamestown and five years after an Indian uprising destroyed almost everything that had been built by settlers who had sailed from England on the Guift of God to an area known as Martin’s Hundred flanking the James River. Two houses and a portion of the established church remained. Approximately twenty persons returned to rebuild.

A compulsory law was passed in 1624 regarding church attendance and most likely the church was one of the first structures restored. A muster was taken in 1625 showing seven households which included William’s father Robert. The Grand Assembly convened in 1628 to discuss a palisade for Martin’s Hundred for protection against the Indians which were still a very strong threat. The year following William’s birth a tax law went into effect for all freemen in the colony to support the defensive Indian measures.

Little is known about William. His mother may have remarried. At least one researcher states that William married a Penelope Johnston. Only one child has been established. By the 1700's the area where William was born was gone replaced by a plantation created from a cluster of farms by Robert Carter and known today as Carter’s Grove.

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