[2] Herriman was born 1791 in Jamaica, Queens, New York, and was the third of four known surviving children.
William married Maria Belle Stillwell Frecke/Freeke on 13 December 1820.
His second child, Caroline Herriman Polhemus (died 1906), the wife of Henry Ditmas Polhemus, founded the Polhemus Memorial Clinic, the first "skyscraper hospital", in honour of her late husband, who had served as the Regent of Long Island College Hospital (LICH) from 1872 until his death in 1895, and donated $400,000 to LICH for this work.
She also founded the Herriman Home in Monsey, Rockland County.
[3] His third child, William H. Herriman (1829-1918), became a noted art collector and gave a large number of paintings to the Brooklyn Museum on his death.