William was first found in 1647 in Stratford, CT, where he was one of the
thirty five men who accepted the invitation of the first seventeen settlers to join them. Later, he removed from Stratford
to Hempstead, Long Island as his name appears as a "free holder~ in 1647. It has been previously settled by a colony of English
from Wethersfield and Stamford, CT. In 1653, delegates from each of the eight English towns on Long Island met and drew up
a protest against Peter Stuyvesant's tyrannical methods. William and John Summers signed for Hempstead. He also acquired land
in Oyster Bay and was appointed magistrate in 1653.
