Templeville, on the borders of Queen Anne and Caroline counties and near the Maryland-Delaware line, is most likely named for the Temple family.

Throughout the 19th century Delaware politics was characterized by a conservative downstate, agrarian and small business majority, in opposition to a Wilmington based industrialist minority.

As the sectional issues intensified with the coming of the Civil War, this majority became impossibly conflicted between its certain loyalty to the Union and its equally certain view that decisions about property, including slaves, belonged with the states.

The result was first an effort by many to find a non-existent middle ground, and then, with a much diminished majority, entry into constant and bitter conflict with the Republican minority centered in Wilmington and supported by the Federal government.

No sooner had he inherited the job than he received a call from President James K. Polk to raise troops for the Mexican–American War.

In the election of 1860, Temple sought the elusive middle ground, and was one of the Delaware leaders of the short lived Constitutional Union Party.

After the election of Abraham Lincoln and the secession of the Confederate states, Temple took a position opposing the enforced restoration of the Union, and joined the Democratic Party.

After presiding over a futile "Peace Convention" in Dover in June 1861, he became the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the hotly contested and controversial 1862 election.

The Democrats were outraged and managed to narrowly elect Temple and a majority in the General Assembly, although losing the governorship.

The plaque on the stone simply reads, "William Temple 1814–1863 Legislator Elected to Congress Governor of Delaware 1846–1847".