William Stevenson (1741–1821) was an English publisher and writer.

The eldest son of the Rev. Seth Ellis Stevenson, rector of Treswell, Nottinghamshire, William Stevenson was a printer and publisher at the firm being Stevenson, Matchett, & Stevenson in the marketplace of Norwich. For 35 years (from 1785 or 1786 onward) he was the proprietor of the Norfolk Chronicle.^[1]

Stevenson contributed to John Nichols's Literary Anecdotes and to the Gentleman's Magazine. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He died in Surrey Street, Norwich, on 13 May 1821. The antiquary Seth William Stevenson was his son.^[1]

In 1812 Stevenson manufactured with his own press a new edition of James Bentham's History of the Church of Ely. In 1817 he published a Supplement to this work. William Stevenson also edited John Campbell's Lives of the British Admirals, updating to 1812 the information contained in it.^[1]

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Stevenson, Seth William". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 54. London: Smith, Elder & Co.