William Stewart, Jr., was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on November 30, 1858, the son of William Moore Stewart and Elizabeth Forrester Clopper.
The younger Stewart entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1875 as a member of the College Class of 1875. While at Penn, he was a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity and the Philomathean Society. He served as vice president of his College class and president of his Law School class.
Stewart was a talented athlete. He played on his class baseball and cricket teams and on the varsity football, cricket and crew teams, as well as serving as undergraduate president of Athletic Association. He was a member of Penn’s first intercollegiate football team and first intercollegiate crew. An exceptional rower, he was a member of the College Boat Club. He was best-known as a member of the four-man crew that defeated Princeton to win the first Childs Cup. This race, Penn’s first intercollegiate athletic competition, is described in the section on rowing in George Orton’s History of Athletics at Pennsylvania.
After earning his law degree in 1881, Stewart was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar. He served for several years as an assistant federal attorney for this district and for a short time as a judge in the Court of Common Pleas. Stewart was a member of the county board of law examiners, the board of managers of the Law Association of Philadelphia, as well as an honorary member of the Law Academy of Philadelphia. At the time of his retirement he was associated with the law firm of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll in Philadelphia.
Stewart served on the General Alumni Society’s executive committee as well as secretary of his alumni class. He was also a member of the University and Philadelphia Cricket Clubs. He married Margarette Lyman Ballard. After his retirement and the death of his wife, Moore moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, to be near one of his daughters. He died there on March 23, 1940.