William was six years old in March of 1879 when his father Elijah died, reportedly of nervous exhaustion, ultimately a casualty of the Battle of Shiloh in which he had fought seventeen years earlier. After Elijah's death, his widow Leonora and children Bessie, William, and Louise vacated the family residence, Burlington, to make way for the return of Elijah's mother and sister Josephine (née Elliston) Farrell, whose family and descendants occupied the property continuously until the house was demolished in 1932.

        In November 1895, at twenty-three a rising champion rifle and pistol shot, Elliston hosted the Hermitage Club's Thanksgiving Ball, where his future wife Selene Harding Jackson, aged 19, daughter of Selene née Harding and William Hicks Jackson, made her debut; they were married the following spring and afterward lived with Selene's family at Belle Meade Farm, where the next year in November their son was born. Elliston continued to compete at trap-shooting while assisting his father-in-law in managing the farm.

        In the early morning of Saturday 6 January 1900, during a weekend of shooting at the brothers John and Mose Wall's farm lying on both sides of the Tennessee–Kentucky border near Keysburg, Logan county, Kentucky, Elliston picked up a handgun lying on a mantelpiece and shot his sister's husband Ed Sinclair several times, critically wounding him. Sinclair soon recovered, while sensationalized newspaper coverage across the country proposed competing narratives, speculating upon Elliston's motive and the state and soundness of his mind and attempting to parse the differing witness accounts of precipitating events, including words exchanged between the three men in the moments leading up to the shooting.

        On the advice of his father-in-law, also a house guest of the Wall brothers that weekend, Elliston returned to Belle Meade by train later the same morning and through his brother-in-law, family attorney Albert Marks, sent notice of his arrival to law enforcement officials in Nashville, putting himself at their disposal. Some days later the Nashville Banner  reported that Elliston had consulted with Joseph H. Acklen, an attorney and family friend, another among the Wall brothers' house guests on the night of the shooting, quoting Acklen's legal opinion that there was no reason Elliston shouldn't go abroad if he wished, considering that Sinclair was expected to recover fully from his injuries and no criminal charges were anticipated. Colonel Acklen further confirmed to the Banner  that, upon learning his opinion, Elliston had spoken to him of joining the British forces fighting the Boers in South Africa and departed thereafter for New York and thence for England.

        Arriving in England a popular celebrity, Elliston was engaged by American manufacturer Colt Patent Firearms to remain abroad and establish a European sales office in London, touring Great Britain and the continent promoting his sponsor's wares in matches and exhibitions. In London, he resided at the Hampstead residence of his aunt Louise née Chapman and her husband Howard Kennedy and became a shooting companion of the Prince of Wales, crowned King Edward VII the following year.

        His wife's petition for divorce was filed 4 December 1900, and Elliston's solicitors filed his response on 1 March 1901. The petition was granted in December.

        Elliston's death in Los Angeles at the age of thirty-six was ruled a suicide by gunshot to the head. His remains were returned to Nashville for burial next to his mother's grave on the W. R. Elliston Sr plot at Mount Olivet Cemetery but later disinterred and buried with his sisters, Louise and Bessie, and brother-in-law Edwards Sinclair on the Gale and Sinclair family plot at Mount Olivet.

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"W. R. ELLISTON, scion of a famous family of Tennessee, a son-in-law of Gen. William H. Jackson, was known on two continents as a remarkable rifle and pistol shot. Elliston secured employment as foreign representative of a large eastern firearms concern. He established headquarters in London and for several years was the beau ideal of a pistol shot and duelist in Europe. In France, Germany, England and the Russias, his fame spread until he was in constant demand for exhibitions before the crowned heads."  (Los Angeles Daily Times, 16 April 1909, 1.)

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Parents:

     Leonora Chapman (1846–'99)

     Elijah Boddie Elliston (1841–'79)

Siblings (3):

     Medora Thayer Elliston (1869–'70)

     Elizabeth B. Elliston (Sinclair) (1870–1917)

     Louise Elliston (Smith) (1873–1905)

Married (19 May 1896):

     Selene Harding Jackson (1876–1913)

Child (1):

     William Jackson Elliston (1897–1969)