Little is known of William's background or family, except that his father Godwin held land in Shipbourne, near Wrotham in Kent, perhaps as a vassal of the Archbishops of Canterbury.
[4] According to late 13th-century documents, the Hundred Rolls, King Henry II gave William the office of steward of Exmoor, and lands at North Petherton, Somerset.
In 1197 he granted William a manor at Sutton-at-Hone, Kent, which later was supposed to become a hospital, but instead eventually became a preceptory for the Knights Hospitaller.
From 1197 William was responsible for the collection of revenues from Geoffrey's lands at Lydford, Devon, and held the office of chief forester of Somerset; it is unclear to whom he owed that position.
[6][a] In 1199 he was involved in a dispute over the stannaries with another official, Hugh Bardulf, temporarily losing control of them – along with his office as sheriff – in 1200.
[1] He was jointly placed in charge of the mints of London and Canterbury in 1205, along with Reginald de Cornhill, with whom he also shared the collection of the tax of a fifteenth on merchants, a post the two had held since 1202.
William of Wrotham was also one of the officials charged with supervising the ships dispatched to the coasts in 1204,[15][e] after the loss of Normandy exposed England to invasion by the French.
[4] William was in charge of the 17 ships based in Romney, Rye, Shoreham, Southampton, Winchelsea, and Exeter, while the rest of the fleet came under Cornhill's control.
William surrendered custody of Taunton Castle to Peter de Taraton in July and was in charge of purchasing the royal wine in August.
[23] In late 1213 William was directing the efforts of the seaports of south-western England and the Cinque Ports in naval affairs.
[26] Also in 1214, William co-founded the hospital of Domus Dei in Portsmouth with Peter des Roches, the Bishop of Winchester.
[27] John rewarded William for his service with churches in Sheppey and East Malling, which were granted in 1207,[g] and the right to oversee the royal forests in Cornwall and Devon.
[4] During John's reign, Pope Innocent III placed an interdict on England, forbidding public celebration of sacred rites in English churches.
The medieval chronicler Roger of Wendover named William as one of John's "evil advisers",[4] or "most wicked counsellors".
[29][30] According to Nicholas Vincent, while Roger's account of the exactions and crimes of the members of his list of evil advisers certainly had a strong basis of truth, it was also greatly exaggerated.
[29] W. L. Warren agrees and points out that many of the details of Roger's accounts that can be checked with other records are wrong, making the other parts of his stories suspect.