Baron William Widdrington (1678–1743) succeeded to the title 4th Baron Widdrington of Blankney on the death of his father (William Widdrington, 3rd Baron Widdrington) in 1695.
He was a member of a staunchly Catholic family, was educated at a Jesuit college in Paris and became a supporter of the Stuart claim to the English Crown.
He took part in the Jacobite rising of 1715, and with two of his brothers, was taken prisoner after the Battle of Preston. He was convicted of high treason and condemned to death but was reprieved after an intervention by Catherine Graham. Although his title and estates were forfeited, he was not executed but was allowed to retire to Bath.
He married Jane Tempest in 1700 and resided at Stella Hall, Blaydon on Tyne, Northumberland. When his son, Henry Francis Widdrington, who claimed the barony, died in September 1774, the family appears to have become extinct.
His wife Jane died in 1714, and in 1718 he married Catherine Graham. In 1739, Catherine and her sister Mary inherited the estate at Nunnington Hall, Yorkshire, from their nephew Charles, third and last Viscount Preston, who died without issue. After his death on 17 April 1743, he was interred in his wife's family vault at Nunnington Parish Church.[1]