List of Famous people named William

William Backhouse Astor Jr. was an American businessman, racehorse owner/breeder, and yachtsman who was a member of the prominent Astor family. His elder brother, financier and philanthropist John Jacob Astor III, became head of the British line of Astors in England. William Jr. was head of the American line of Astors, while his wife, Caroline Schermerhorn, served as the leader of New York society's "Four Hundred" during the Gilded Age.

William Frederick Le Poer Trench, 5th Earl of Clancarty, 4th Marquess of Heusden was an Irish peer of the House of Lords, a Dutch nobleman, and a deputy lieutenant and justice of the peace of County Galway. He was known for the controversy that ensued after a petition for divorce was argued in 1890, which was based on an affidavit accusing his wife at the time, Belle Bilton, of adultery.

William Foster, D.D. was a Church of Ireland bishop.

William VII of Hesse-Kassel was Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel.

William Wilberforce was a British lawyer, the eldest son of William Wilberforce. He was briefly a Member of Parliament in 1837–38.

William Willoughby Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen, FRS styled by the courtesy title Viscount Cole until 1840, was an Irish palaeontologist and Conservative Member of Parliament. He also served as the first Imperial Grand Master of the Orange Order from 1866 until his death. He was Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland from 1846 until his death.

William of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld was a member of the House of Hesse and was Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld from 1721 to 1761.

William Henry Fox Talbot FRS FRSE FRAS was an English scientist, inventor and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. His work, in the 1840s on photomechanical reproduction, led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure. He was the holder of a controversial patent that affected the early development of commercial photography in Britain. He was also a noted photographer who contributed to the development of photography as an artistic medium. He published The Pencil of Nature (1844–46), which was illustrated with original salted paper prints from his calotype negatives, and made some important early photographs of Oxford, Paris, Reading, and York.