Stockbridge was born on June 29, 1782, in Hanover, Massachusetts, to William Stockbridge (1752–1841) and Ruth Bailey (1754–1839).[1] His brother, Calvin, became a guardian of a young John Brown Russwurm.[2]
William married Olive True, daughter of Nathaniel, in 1805.[1] In 1810, he became the first owner of 51 East Main Street, in the Lower Falls area of North Yarmouth, then in Massachusetts but now in Maine.[3] Stockbridge's maternal uncle Lebbeus Bailey had been clockmaker in North Yarmouth up until his death in 1827.[4]
Three years later, they had a son, William Jr., who became a physician.[2] Other children included Maria, Marcia and Joseph.[1]
In 1821, he purchased, with his brother, a mill at the Royal River's Second Falls. They ran it successfully for twenty years as W. R. & C. Stockbridge, a paper company. In 1836, it was incorporated as Yarmouth Paper Manufacturing Company,[5] but when advancements in machinery and processes arrived, competition became too difficult, and the mill closed.[6]
In 1824, he received a vote to become a congressman for the State of Maine in the House of Representatives.[7]
He was listed, in 1833, as being a member of the Maine Temperance Society, along with a Joseph Stockbridge,[8] and was a stockholder in the Bank of Portland in 1840.[9]
Stockbridge was one of the owners of the schooner Cairo, which was built at Yarmouth's harbor in 1872. Its co-owners included William and Samuel Bucknam, David True and James Mann.[10]