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Bentley, William

(Encyclopedia)Bentley, William, 1759–1819, American Unitarian clergyman, b. Boston. From 1783 until his death he was pastor of East Church, Salem, Mass. His Diary (4 vol., 1905–14), covering the years 1784–18...

Windham, William

(Encyclopedia)Windham, William wĭnˈdəm [key], 1750–1810, British politician. Elected to Parliament in 1784, he was a friend of Edmund Burke, whom he assisted in the impeachment of Warren Hastings. He served (1...

Winter, William

(Encyclopedia)Winter, William, 1836–1917, American drama critic, biographer, and poet, b. Gloucester, Mass., grad. Harvard Law School, 1857. A member of the literary bohemians who met in Pfaff's Cellar in New Yor...

Benbow, William

(Encyclopedia)Benbow, William, fl. 1825–40, English pamphleteer and publisher. He is known especially as the author (c.1832) of the Grand National Holiday; or, Congress of the Productive Classes, which introduced...

Walker, William

(Encyclopedia)Walker, William, 1824–60, American filibuster in Nicaragua, b. Nashville, Tenn. Walker, a qualified doctor, a lawyer, and a journalist by the time he was 24, sought a more adventurous career. After ...

Warburton, William

(Encyclopedia)Warburton, William, 1698–1779, English bishop and author. Ordained in 1727 and serving successively in several rectories, he became chaplain to Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, in 1738, preacher to...

Warham, William

(Encyclopedia)Warham, William wôrˈəm [key], 1450?–1532, English churchman, archbishop of Canterbury. He studied at Oxford and became widely known in England for his legal ability, went often on diplomatic miss...

Warner, William

(Encyclopedia)Warner, William, 1558?–1609, English poet. A lawyer educated at Oxford, he wrote Pan his Syrinx (1584), translated Plautus's Menaechmi (1595), and gained a reputation with Albion's England, a long h...

Whipple, William

(Encyclopedia)Whipple, William, 1730–85, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Kittery, Maine. Whipple, who had been a sea captain, was a merchant of Portsmout...

Whiston, William

(Encyclopedia)Whiston, William, 1667–1752, English clergyman and mathematician. He won favor through his New Theory of the Earth (1696) and in 1701 was made deputy to Sir Isaac Newton, whom he succeeded (1703) as...