William Parsons may refer to:

Arts and entertainment

  • William Parsons (composer and copyist) (fl.1545–1563), English Renaissance composer and copyist from Wells
  • William Parsons (composer and musician) (1745/6–1817), Master of the King's Music
  • William Parsons (poet) (died 1828), English writer associated with the Della Cruscan movement
  • William Parsons (actor) (1736–1795), British actor and painter

<!-- *William Parsons (silent film actor) (1878–1919), American silent comedy film actor often credited as "Smiling Bill Parsons" --><!-- needs valid blue link -->

Sports

  • William Parsons (footballer) (1877–?), Anglo-Spanish footballer
  • Bill Parsons (born 1948), baseball player

Nobleman

  • Sir William Parsons, 1st Baronet of Langley (c.1636–c.1662), of the Parsons baronets
  • Sir William Parsons, 1st Baronet of Bellamont (died 1650), surveyor general of Ireland and member of parliament
  • Sir William Parsons, 2nd Baronet of Bellamont (died 1658), Earl of Rosse
  • Sir William Parsons, 2nd Baronet of Birr Castle (1661–1741), Anglo-Irish politician
  • Sir William Parsons, 4th Baronet of Birr Castle (1731–1791), Irish politician
  • William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1800–1867), Lord Rosse, Irish astronomer
  • William Parsons, 5th Earl of Rosse (1873–1918), Irish peer and British Army officer
  • Brendan Parsons, 7th Earl of Rosse (William Clere Leonard Brendan Parsons, born 1936), worked for the United Nations

Others

<!-- *William Parsons (surveyor) (1701–1757), surveyor general, founder of Easton, Pennsylvania --><!-- needs valid blue link -->

  • William Barclay Parsons (1859–1932), American civil engineer
  • William E. Parsons (1872–1939), American architect and city planner
  • William Sterling Parsons (1901–1953), American naval officer and atomic bomb weaponeer aboard Enola Gay
  • William W. Parsons (academic administrator) (1850–1925), president of Indiana State Normal School, later known as Ball State University
  • William W. Parsons (NASA), former director of the NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center, & Space Shuttle Program manager
  • William Henry Parsons (New York activist) (died 1935), headed the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice
  • William Henry Parsons (colonel) (1826–1907), American newspaper editor, legislator, and Confederate colonel