On 8 June 1626 he was born at Wentworth Woodhouse and, on 28 June 1635, knighted in Ireland by his father. On 12 January 1638 he was admitted at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1640 and 1641 he was styled Lord Raby as his father had become Earl of Strafford. Then, on 12 May 1641 his father was executed on Tower Hill and had his titles forfeited. However, as William Wentworth, Knight, on 1 December 1641, he had all his father's titles restored to him. 
He matriculated at Oxford on 21 March 1642 and, being only sixteen years of age, was given a pass at the beginning of the Civil War to go abroad where he remained for nine years. However, in his absence on 22 May 1644 he was assessed at œ3,000 and his estates were sequestered by
Parliament from 1645 until, in 1652, he returned to England and took the oath of abjuration.

On 27 February 1655 he married Lady Henrietta Mary Stanley, daughter of the Earl of Derby, but the marriage was childless. Before the Restauration, he took his seat in Parliament on 27 April 1660. On 15 April 1661 he was invested as a Knight of The Garter. On 19 May 1662, by Act of Parliament, the attainder of his father was reversed and his titles were now regarded as properly inherited and reverting to the original dates of creation for his father.
In 1685 he lost his wife. In 1688 he supported William III against James II. In 1694 he married Henrietta de La Rochefoucauld de Roye, a cousin of his first wife, but this marriage was also childless as, shortly afterwards on 16 October 1695, he died and all the peerage honours conferred on him and his father became extinct.
 

Source: Leo van de Pas