William Armistead (died circa 1716) was a Virginia planter and politician in Elizabeth City County, Virginia, which he represented in the House of Burgesses for multiple terms.
[1] Complicating matters, several relatives shared the same name in the colonial era, and four more men of the same name would serve in the Virginia House of Delegates following the Revolutionary War, the first of them being William Armistead of New Kent County.
The son of the former Hannah Ellyson and burgess Anthony Armistead (who had helped try rebels after Bacon's Rebellion), William was born into what had become one of the First Families of Virginia and received an education appropriate to his class.
His last wife was Rebecca, daughter of Edward Moss, a justice of the peace of nearby York County.
Elizabeth City County voters first elected Armistead as one of the men representing them in the House of Burgesses in 1692 and re-elected him in 1693.