William Candler was born, grew to manhood, and married in South River Settlement along the James River in Virginia. In 1755, at age nineteen, William joined the Quaker meeting at South River (present-day Lynchburg, Virginia). Several years thereafter, he was elected clerk of the Quaker Meeting. He acquired modest tracts of land at South River including one sharing property lines with his future father-in-law Joseph Anthony and his father Daniel. In 1760, William Candler contracted to carry supplies to soldiers stationed at Dunkard Bottom on the New River (present-day Radford, VA). In 1761, he married Elizabeth Anthony. William Candler was the executor of his father's 1765 will filed in early 1766 in Bedford County, Virginia. Later in 1766, he asked the Quaker meeting officials to settle his business and give him a certificate of good standing for departure. After this he may have moved his wife and children to Cane Creek, North Carolina.

A group of Quaker colonizers from Cane Creek, under the leadership of Joseph Maddock, moved to Georgia in about 1770 to take up a large grant given to them by Georgia governor Wright. They named this colony Wrightsborough. A short time later, William Candler was appointed as Surveyor of this county, a major political appointment in colonial America. At first a major in the British militia, Candler resigned his commission and joined the fight for American Independence. His distinction as a Major, then later Colonel of the Georgia "Refugees" of the American Revolution has been chronicled by his descendants.