William Campbell was a merchant and local officeholder in Wilmington, North Carolina. An owner of enslaved people, in 1768 he served as a justice on the local freeholders court which heard cases related to enslaved people. That same year he also submitted a claim for his enslaved person Cudgo, who had run away and subsequently died. Campbell later served as a justice on the Court of Pleas from 1771 to 1773 and as the county sheriff from 1774 to 1775. In 1775 he served on the Committee of Safety briefly before resigning in support of the crown.