William Abercromby (1723-1741) was baptized on 28 May 1723 at Alloa Parish, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, the fifth son of Alexander Abercromby (1675-1753) of Tullibody and Mary Duff (1680-1743).

William went to South Carolina with his older brother, James Abercromby (1708-1775), who was attorney general of the colony.

By early 1741, when he was not yet eighteen years old, William had just settled at a new plantation near Georgetown, South Carolina when he became ill on a Thursday morning and died there Saturday morning. Doctor Dick [probably George Dick] attended him as he lay at Mr. Fleming’s house [probably the Georgetown merchant, William Fleming] where Mrs. Fleming [probably Elizabeth Fleming, wife of William] and Captain Cleland’s Lady [probably Mary Perry Cleland, wife of John Cleland (1700-1760)] waited on him.

William was buried before his brother, James Abercromby (1708-1775), could reach him from Charleston sixty miles away. The attorney general wrote to his mother in Scotland, who wrote to her daughter, Helen, wife of Sir Robert Abercromby, on 11 May 1741 relaying the sad news of William's death and that the minister of the parish had given William a funeral sermon the next Sunday after his death.

The minister was probably Rev. John Fordyce (?-1751), minister of Prince Frederick Parish, South Carolina. Rev. Fordyce had come to South Carolina in 1736 and served the Georgetown area. Rev. Fordyce and his wife, Elizabeth, had three children born in Prince Frederick Parish, South Carolina -- Thomas in 1737, Elizabeth in 1740 and Isaac in 1745. His wife, Elizabeth Fordyce (1704-1748), died on 1 March 1748.

On 20 October 1748 Rev. Fordyce re-married to Mary (Hall) Karwon, widow of Crafton Kerwon/Karwon (?-1747). Mary Hall had married Crafton Karwon at Prince Frederick Parish in 1737 with Rev. Fordyce performing the ceremony. Rev. Mr. Alexander Keith, who had arrived in 1746 as minister of Prince George Winyah Parish, performed the marriage ceremony of Rev. Fordyce and widow Karmon.

Rev. John Fordyce had performed the marriage ceremonies of Thomas Dial and Catherine McGinney in 1737 and of John [Aber] Cromby and Mary Tompkins in 1744. However, William Abercromby's 1741 burial was not recorded in the surviving records of Rev. Fordyce.

Rev. Fordyce died in South Carolina on 21 July 1751 leaving a will, dated 2 February 1751, asking to be buried in the Prince Frederick Parish Church Yard between his two wives, Elizabeth and Mary, and naming sons, Thomas and Isaac, and daughter Elizabeth and "her sister Anne," who was perhaps a stepdaughter.