Birth Name: William Floyd Weld
Place of Birth: Smithtown, New York
Date of Birth: July 31, 1945
Ethnicity: English (mostly), with distant Dutch, Welsh, French, and Scottish
William Weld, also known as Bill Weld, is an American businessperson, attorney, and politician. He is the Libertarian Party’s 2016 nominee for Vice President of the United States.
As a Republican, he served as Governor of Massachusetts, from January 3, 1991 to July 29, 1997.
William is the son of Mary Blake (Nichols) and David Low Weld. His religion is Episcopalian. He is from a prominent family, with a large amount of ancestral lines that have been in the U.S. (usually Massachusetts and New York) since the 1600s.
William is a patrilineal descendant of captain Joseph Weld (1599-1646), one of the founders of the prominent Weld family of Massachusetts. Among Joseph Weld’s other descendants are actors Tuesday Weld, Nat Wolff, and Alex Wolff. Among William’s many other prominent ancestors is William Brewster (c. 1566-1644), a Mayflower passenger and noted Pilgrim. Among many of William’s other descendants are actors Jordana Brewster, Chevy Chase, Seth MacFarlane, and Brandon Routh. William’s first cousin is novelist John Nichols.
William’s paternal grandfather was Francis Minot Weld, Jr. (the son of Francis Minot Weld and Elizabeth Rodman). William’s great-grandfather Francis was the son of William Gordon Weld and Hannah Minot. Elizabeth was the daughter of Benjamin Rodman and Susan W. Morgan.
William’s paternal grandmother was Margaret Low White (the daughter of William Augustus White and Harriet Hillard). William was the son of Alexander Moss White and Elizabeth Hart Tredway. Harriet was the daughter of John H. Hillard and Harriet Low.
William’s maternal grandfather was John Treadwell Nichols (the son of John White Treadwell Nichols and Mary Blake Slocum). William’s grandfather John was an ichthyologist and ornithologist. William’s great-grandfather John was the son of George Nichols and Susan Farley Treadwell. Mary Blake was the daughter of William Henry Slocum and Sarah Elizabeth Williams.
William’s maternal grandmother was Cornelia duBois Floyd (the daughter of John Gelston Floyd, Jr. and Julia Dubois). John was the son of John Gelston Floyd, a U.S. Congressman, and of Sarah Backus Kirkland. Julia was the daughter of Cornelius DuBois and Mary Ann A. Delafield, who was English.
Source: Genealogy of William Weld – https://www.geni.com
Photo By Matthew W. Hutchins, Harvard Law Record (Own work) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons