William Thomas was the first child of Benjamin and Rachel Simpkins, born 17 December 1814 in Johnston County, North Carolina. When he was about 6 years old his family moved to Jackson County, Georgia, where his father was a planter and farmer. On 21 April 1839 he married Matilda Clementine Wilson in Jackson County, Georgia, and began raising a family and operating a farm of his own. A few years later, he followed the lead of his father's family, and moved his own family to Henry County to begin farming there. By census time in 1860 he had moved his family to a farm in Carroll County, and within ten years after that had moved to Heard County, where he remained as a farmer the rest of his life. Over a period of 26 years, William and Matilda produced a wonderful and loving family of 14 children. He is listed in the 1880 census with Matilda and four teenage to adult children still at home. His gravesite has been found here in the Johnson Chapel Cemetery in Carroll County, which lists his date of death as 15 February 1887. Their children were:

John W - 1840
Benjamin Franklin - 1842
George Washington - 1843
William Thomas Jr. - 1845
Mary Jane - 1847
Lewis Castle - 1848
Catherine Anne Elizabeth - 1850
Isaac Daniel - 1852
Martha Caroline - 1854
James A Buchanan - 1857
Sarah S - 1858
Joseph W - 1861
Rachel R - 1863
Robert A - 1866

No further census records were found for his widow Matilda, but a copy of an old 1888 - 1890 Atlanta City Directory was found that lists several of William and Matilda's children as residents, and Matilda is listed as a widow of William; living at the same address as their son Isaac. It is assumed she sold the family farm in Heard County after William's death, and moved to Atlanta to be near her children and their families who lived there. Since that date, no additional records for Matilda have been located.