William Edmeston

General William Edmeston (died 1804) was a British Army officer who owned an estate in New York State.

As a captain in the 48th Regiment of Foot, he was posted to North America in 1755 with his brother, Lieutenant Robert Edmeston, to fight in the French and Indian War.

In 1763, by royal proclamation, the brothers were each awarded 5,000 acres (20 km2) of land in the colonies for their military service.

They attempted to establish their claims in what was then a disputed part of the New Hampshire Grants, now Vermont.

However, in 1770 they decided to locate on the east bank of the Unadilla River in New York State just west of George Croghan's Otsego patent, in what is now the Town of Edmeston in Otsego County.

The patents of Robert and William Edmeston on the Central New York frontier, c. 1770.
Possible location of Edmestons' expansion into the 20 Townships west of the Unadilla, c. 1792