He was baptized at the New Hurley Reformed Church in Shawangunk, Ulster County, New York.

William C. Hasbrouck graduated from Union College in Schenectady and lived for a time in Franklin, Tennessee, where he served as Principal of the academy founded by Bishop Otey.

After returning to the North, he briefly worked as Principal of the Farmer's Hall Academy in Goshen in the early 1820s and then studied law with various lawyers in Newburgh, and was admitted to the bar in 1826.

He was a Whig member from Orange County of the New York State Assembly, and was Speaker in 1847.

[3] William Roe, a retired grocer, gifted Hasbrouck the adjoining property to his mansion in Newburgh.