Colonel William Preston (December 25, 1729 – June 28, 1783) was an Irish-born American military officer, planter and politician who founded a political dynasty.

[11] Ultimately, the Crown granted Patton's partners between 100,000 and 120,000 acres in America to permit British colonization beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains.

In June 1752, William accompanied his uncle James Patton during negotiations to acquire land from native American tribes, and served as his secretary at the Logstown Treaty Conference.

[21] Preston survived the Draper's Meadow massacre, an attack by the Shawnee against a settlement that was part of a property later known as Smithfield Plantation, that he purchased in 1773.

This expedition to one of the tributaries of the Clinch River failed to locate any enemies, and the insufficient food supply for the troops led to a virtual mutiny.

[24] Preston was also responsible for erecting Fort William near one of the mountain passes to protect settlers, and in early October 1756 he accompanied George Washington from Augusta Court House to the James River at Col. John Buchanan's at Luney's Ferry during Washington's survey of the frontier before taking drafted militia to relieve the company at Millar's Fort in November.

As the county lieutenant, one of Col. Preston's greatest contributions to the American Revolutionary War was his ability to suppress the Tories (British loyalists) from uprising in then-vast southwest Virginia during the Revolution.

[28] Although as firstborn son, he probably inherited land from his father when he reached legal age, his mother lived with him as well as supervised that estate, so that documentation is scarce.

[29] In February 1759, Preston purchased 191 acres on Buffalo Creek near the headwaters of the James River which had a block house or fort surrounded by a stockade.

In August 1759, Preston traveled to Nanjemoy, Maryland and purchased 16 enslaved Africans from the ship True Blue for 752pounds (to avoid a 5% Virginia sales tax).

[31] However, in 1774, Preston moved his family to Smithfield Plantation, in present-day Blacksburg, Virginia (the Montgomery County seat), and it served as his final home.

[34] Preston became one of the justices of the peace comprising the Augusta County Court on March 21, 1755, but his first attempt at legislative office (as burgess) failed that December.

Preston served as a founding trustee of Liberty Hall (chartered in 1782), formerly named the Augusta Academy, when in 1776 it was renamed in a burst of revolutionary fervor and moved to Lexington, Virginia (shortly before the formation of Rockbridge County).

[39] Preston collapsed during a late June 1783 military muster near Price's Fork in Montgomery County, and days later died in a house to which he was taken.

Their grandson William Ballard Preston was a congressman, Secretary of the Navy under Zachary Taylor, and later a senator from the Confederate States of America.