US Congressman. Representative from Nebraska. Civil War Vet. In 1851 he moved with his parents to Chester, Randolph County, and attended the public schools there. He later attended McKendree College in Lebanon, Ill. He served in the Federal Army during the Civil War as second sergeant in Company H, One Hundred and Forty-second Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry in 1864-65. After the war he studied law and was admitted to the bar in Chester, Illinois in 1874. He was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives in 1872 and moved to Nebraska in May 1874 and became a member of the Nebraska House of Representatives in 1876. He practiced law in both Omaha and North Platte, Nebraska. He moved to North Platte, Nebraska, April 1877 where he married Mary Ann "Mollie" Keith in 1882. William and Mollie had one son, Morell Keith Neville, who was born in 1884. Mollie died of "child bed fever" shortly after giving birth to their son, who would become Governor of Nebraska in 1917. William continued the practice of law, and married secondly in 1886, to Irene Morrison Rector, granddaughter of General Pitcairn Morrison. William Neville was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1884 to the Forty-ninth Congress. He was judge of the thirteenth judicial district 1891-1895. He was elected judge of the Nebraska supreme court in 1896, but as the amendment of the constitution providing for an increased court did not pass, he did not take his seat. William was elected as a Populist to the Fifty-sixth Congress of the United States to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William L. Greene and was re-elected to the Fifty-seventh Congress and served from December 4, 1899, to March 3, 1903. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1902 so resumed the practice of law and moved to Douglas, Arizona in 1903. He was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives in 1905. William and Bird Segle McGuire were first cousins.