William Aspinwall

William Aspinwall (c. 1605 – c. 1662) was an Englishman who emigrated to Boston with the Winthrop Fleet in 1630. He played an integral part in the early religious controversies of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Life Aspinwall as most of the Aspinwalls probably came from the County of Lancaster, England.

He arrived at Massachusetts Bay onboard Arbella, part of the Winthrop Fleet, on 17 June 1630. He was accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth, who was sixteen at that time. Among with other settlers he came ashore at Charlestown on 1 July and was appointed a deacon. On 3 April 1632, Aspinwall took the oath of a freeman. In 1643, he joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. It was declared by the Boston court in 1644 that Aspinwall "shall be a public notary for his jurisdiction," and he continued at this post until 1651. As a skilled surveyor, he joined a group of Boston merchants on an unsuccessful expedition up the Delaware River in search of furs. He was one of Boston's delegates to the Cambridge Synod of 1646.

Relations ran afoul for Aspinwall again in Boston, and in 1652 he sold his property and returned to England, where he was living in Cheshire as late as April 13, 1662. Upon his return to England, he became one of the Fifth Monarchists, a radical religious sect that had a brief existence in the turmoil of the Commonwealth of England.

He probably had seven children.