List of Famous people named William

William Thornton was a planter and public official in Colonial Virginia. Thornton served as member of the House of Burgesses for Brunswick County from 1756–68 and as justice of the county and of the quorum as early as 1760 and as late as 1774/5. Thornton was the great-grandson of William Thornton who arrived in Virginia from England as late as 1646 settling in Gloucester County, Virginia. He was through his paternal line a cousin of fellow burgesses, Francis Thornton of Spotsylvania, Presley Thornton of Northumberland, George Thornton of Spotsylvania, William Thornton of King George and William Thornton of Richmond County, Virginia.

William Thornton was a planter and colonist in 17th–century Virginia. He was one of approximately thirty early Virginia colonists to progenerate descendants that through intermarriage would establish themselves as a political and social 'aristocracy' in America. Among his most notable descendants are U.S. Presidents James Madison and Zachary Taylor.

William Kilgour "Willie" Jackson was a Scottish curler. He was the skip of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club team which won the first Olympic Gold medal in curling at the inaugural Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France, in 1924.

Admiral The Hon. William John Ward was a Royal Navy officer who became Admiral Superintendent of the Malta Dockyard.

William Conklin was an American actor. He appeared in 85 silent films between 1913 and 1929. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and died in Hollywood, California.

William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow was an American newspaper publisher, Methodist minister, book author, prisoner of war, lecturer, and politician. He served as Governor of Tennessee from 1865 to 1869 and as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1869 to 1875. Brownlow rose to prominence in the late 1830s and early 1840s as editor of the Whig, a polemical newspaper in East Tennessee that promoted Whig Party ideals and opposed secession in the years leading up to the American Civil War. Brownlow's uncompromising and radical viewpoints made him one of the most divisive figures in Tennessee political history and one of the most controversial Reconstruction Era politicians of the United States.

William Steinway, also known as Wilhelm Steinway, son of Steinway & Sons founder Henry E. Steinway, was a businessman and civic leader who was influential in the development of Astoria, New York City.