Biography

William Maxwell is mentioned in Frances Miller Seward's letter of February 19, 1856 to Augustus Henry Seward as Capt. Maxwell Washington Woodhull's uncle. She writes, "Lieut or Capt. Woodhull has become an heir to a large part of the estate of his Unlce who is dead..." William is the is the brother of Capt. Woodhull's mother, Marian Margaret Maxwell Woodhull, and it is likely that his sister and then-baby Maxwell Woodhull stayed with him after the death of her husband Richard Miller Woodhull when Capt. Woodhull was 2 years old.