In 1763, possibly while on a fishing expedition on the River Thames William met Betty Ridge.
Her father was Thomas Ridge, born in Buckland around 1712 of a family who made their living from catching fish in the Thames and selling them in Oxford.
He had leased Noah's Ark Island, and was keeper of a Flash lock, and a licensed victualler.
She was seventeen and he was nineteen, too young to marry without permission, as an orphan, from his maternal uncles, who were his guardians.
His widow, Elizabeth, married Reverend Doctor John Jones, curate at Shellingford church, on 20th January 1790, and she died on 22nd February 1808.