William Purviance was a justice of the peace, and member of the safety committee in colonial and Revolutionary-era New Hanover County. As a justice of the peace, he served several times on the freeholders court, which oversaw legal cases relating to enslaved individuals. He also served as a colonel in the New Hanover Regiment of the North Carolina Militia from 1775 to 1776. He died in New Hanover County in 1787.