When Wheelwright was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his role in the Antinomian Controversy, he established the settlement of Exeter, New Hampshire, and Wentworth followed him there and then to Wells, Maine.

He was the proprietor of a sawmill, and held several town offices, but is most noted for being an elder in his Dover church for nearly 40 years.

Wentworth's father, therefore, was a first cousin of the famed Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson, who, with the Reverend John Wheelwright, was banished in 1637 from Massachusetts for her religious opinions during the Antinomian Controversy.

[2] However, a contemporary biographer of William Wentworth, Susan Ostberg, is of the opinion that Wentworth arrived in Boston in July 1637 when a group of men arrived from Lincolnshire, including Anne Hutchinson's "brother" (actually her brother-in-law, Samuel Hutchinson).

[2] Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson held religious opinions at odds with the established ministers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and at the November 1637 meeting of the General Court, Wheelwright was ordered to depart within 14 days.

[4] He went to the Piscataqua River, establishing the town of Exeter, New Hampshire, with a group of his followers, one of whom was Wentworth.

[8] Here Wentworth was a co-owner of a sawmill, and also served in a variety of town offices, such as selectman, commissioner, and lot-layer.

Wentworth is notable for the large number of his descendants who reached great prominence in the American colonies and in the United States.

[citation needed] Other descendants include the founder of the Wentworth Military Academy, Stephen G. Wentworth; noted publisher and philanthropist Warren Fales Draper; and Deputy Surgeon General Warren Fales Draper, who was a member of General Dwight Eisenhower's staff in Europe during World War II.