William Hincks FLS (16 April 1794 – 10 September 1871) was an Irish Unitarian minister, theologian and professor of natural history.

He stayed there until 1834 and in 1839 took a break from teaching to resume his work with the church, serving in 1845 as the minister at what later became Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel in Hampstead.

[2] While there he had a major role in the development of the botanical gardens, in which he hoped to represent all the known orders of plants that he could grow in the Irish climate.

This was a somewhat controversial appointment as he was chosen over Thomas Henry Huxley who had the backing of a number of well respected botanists including Charles Darwin.

It was suspected that his success over Huxley was due to the influence of his brother Francis Hincks, who was Premier of the Province of Canada at the time.

Through this he published a number of books including: In 1817 Hincks married Maria Ann Yandell and together they had 8 children, five boys and three girls.