William France Sr. was born in the small agricultural village of Whittington, six miles north of Lancaster, where he was christened on 7 January 1727 the second son of Edward, a yeoman farmer, and Agnes France. His elder brother, John, was christened on 27 March 1725 and was apprenticed to a cabinetmaker in Lancaster where he married Elizabeth Townson the daughter of John Townson, a joiner, in 1747.