When William Thomas Lyell was born in March 1834, in Tennessee, United States, his father, Charles S Lyell, was 24 and his mother, Mary Frances Newsome, was 21. He married Mary Jane Tudor on 11 August 1853, in Rutherford, Tennessee, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 3 daughters. He lived in Rutherford, Tennessee, United States in 1850 and Muhlenberg, Kentucky, United States in 1880. He died in 1907, in Central City, Muhlenberg, Kentucky, United States, at the age of 73, and was buried in Apex, Christian, Kentucky, United States.