William Harwood

William Harwood (died June 2, 1737) was a landowner and politician in the Colony of Virginia who thrice represented Warwick County in the House of Burgesses.

Early and family life One of the sons of Ann Needler and her planter and burgess husband Humphrey Harwood. He was likely named for his great-uncle William Harwood who had governed Martin's Hundred and served on the colony's governor's council as well as a burgess.

Career This William Harwood paid taxes on 625 acres in Warwick County in 1704, and in 1717 used a power of attorney from his London-based scrivener cousin, Needler Webb.

Personal life His wife Elizabeth bore four sons and a daughter (Humphrey, William Jr., Thomas, Matthew and Ann).

Death and legacy Harwood died after falling from a horse on June 2, 1737. Within a decade, his son William Jr. continued the family's planter and political traditions by winning election (and multiple re-elections) to the House of Burgesses (as well as to all the Virginia Revolutionary conventions), becoming the longest-serving of all the men of that name. He also established Endview Plantation, now a historic house museum and park operated by the city of Newport News, which greatly expanded and absorbed Warwick County in the 1950s.