William Stafford (died 1450)
William Stafford of Southwick, Wiltshire, was an English gentleman who was killed in June 1450 during Jack Cade's Rebellion, together with his second cousin Sir Humphrey Stafford of Grafton in the parish of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. Both appear as characters in Shakespeare's play Henry VI, Part 2, in which they are described as brothers.
Stafford was the third son of Humphrey Stafford, of Hooke, Dorset and of Southwick, by his wife Elizabeth Maltravers, the heiress of Hooke. He married Catherine Chidiock, daughter of Sir John Chidiock. They had an only son, Humphrey Stafford, 1st Earl of Devon. Catherine survived her husband and re-married firstly to Sir John Arundell of Lanherne, Cornwall, and secondly to Sir Roger Lewkenor.
