William Seward Webb (January 31, 1851 – October 29, 1926)^[1] was a businessman, and inspector general of the Vermont militia with the rank of colonel. He was a founder and former president of the Sons of the American Revolution.^[2]

Webb was born on January 31, 1851, to James Watson Webb and Laura Virginia (née Cram) Webb (1826–1890).^[3] Among his many siblings were Alexander Stewart Webb,^[4] a noted Civil War general who married Anna Elizabeth Remsen;^[5] Henry Walter Webb,^[6] also a railway executive who married Amelia Howard Griswold;^[7] and George Creighton Webb, a Yale Law School graduate and attorney in New York with Saunders, Webb & Worcester who did not marry.

He studied medicine in Vienna, Paris and Berlin. Returning to America, he entered the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and graduated from there in 1875. In 1881, he married Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt, the daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt. For several years Webb practiced medicine; then forsook the profession for finance at the behest of his wife's family, establishing the Wall Street firm of W. S. Webb & Co.^[1]

In 1883, Webster Wagner, the president of the Wagner Palace Car Company, was crushed between two of his own railroad cars. William Vanderbilt owned a controlling interest in the company, and asked his new son-in-law to take over the firm. William Seward invited his brother H. Walter Webb to join him, which started them both on careers in the railroad business. The Wagner Palace Car Company was subsequently merged with the Pullman Company.^[1]

Webb later became president of the Fulton Chain Railway Company, the Fulton Navigation Company and the Raquette Lake Transportation Company. He was the builder and President of the Mohawk and Malone Railway. His railroads were instrumental in opening the Adirondacks to the tourism rush of the mid-to-late 19th century and beyond.^[1]

In 1883, he married Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt, daughter of railroad magnate William H. Vanderbilt.^[8] They were the parents of:^[1]

• Frederica Webb, who married Ralph Pulitzer.^[1]
• J. Watson Webb II,^[9] who married Electra Havemeyer Webb.^[10]
• William Seward Webb, who married Gertrude Emily Gaynor, daughter of William Jay Gaynor; had issue.
• Vanderbilt Webb, who married Aileen Osborn.^[11]

He died on October 29, 1926, and was survived by his wife, three sons, and one daughter.^[1]

• California and Alaska and over the Canadian Pacific Railway (1890)
• Historical notes of the organization of societies of sons of the American Revolution, with a list of national and state officers, and illustrated with designs showing the insignia of the order, form of application for membership, certificates, etc. (1890)
• Shelburne Farms Stud: of English Hackneys, harness and saddle horses, ponies and trotters (1893)