William Watson Andrews was born on February 26, 1810 in Windham, Connecticut, United States. He was descended from William Andrews, one of the first settlers of New Haven, Connecticut, and was the eldest of six sons of William Andrews, a Congregational minister of Connecticut, and Sarah (Parkhill) Andrews of Massachusetts.
In 1828 he entered Yale as a sophomore, a classmate of Noah Porter, with whom a close and lifelong friendship was formed.
He graduated in 1831 with high standing in scholarship, especially in English and debate. During his last year he came under special religious influence which turned him from the law to the ministry.
After three years of teaching, and of studying divinity under his father, he was ordained on May 21, 1834 as pastor of the Congregational Church in Kent, Connecticut, where he remained for fifteen years.
His resignation was due to his departure from the religious denomination of his father and brothers. For a number of years he had been interested in and attracted to a religious movement in Great Britain, whose adherents were commonly called "Irvingites, " from the name of its foremost advocate, but later and better known as the Catholic Apostolic Church. The founders believed its form of organization would conduce to the union of Christendom and that their body was a special receptacle and instrument of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
The imminent and visible coming of Christ was the chief tenet. Into this movement Andrews cast his lot sincerely and unreservedly. A pastorate of eight years in Potsdam, New York, was followed by thirty or more years of labor as an evangelist, requiring extensive traveling in the United States and Canada.
Even with his eloquence and earnestness the results were negligible, but he never lost faith in his beliefs or despaired of their ultimate triumph, although disappointed at its delay.
The latter part of his life he resided in Wethersfield, Connecticut His published works comprise more than thirty sermons, addresses, books and magazine contributions, mainly pertaining to the Catholic Apostolic Church.
Andrews was one of the most significant intellectual leaders of the movement in America. Among the congregations established under his direction was one oprganized at Hartford in 1868. He contributed articles on the Catholic Apostolic church to the Bibliotheca Sacra and McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia, prepared for the Life of Porter a chapter on Dr. Porter as "A Student at Yale, " and published many reviews, orations, sermons, and addresses, and The Miscellanies and Correspondence of Hon. John Cotton Smith (1847).
Andrews was strongly influenced by the religious ferment of the 1830s. He appreciated the Roman-Catholic denomination, but later he turned himself to the Congregational church.
Andrews had eminent personal qualities both intellectual and religious. He was an eloquent preacher and a clear and forceful writer.
He was twice married: on July 24, 1833, to Mary Aann Given; and in July 1858, to Elizabeth Byrne Williams. He had two children; his son Charles became a notable historian.
