Hulme was born in c. 1631 in the neighbourhood of Manchester, England. Relatively little is known about Hulme's life. He is recorded as having been baptised in 1631. After the death of his father, also called William Hulme, in 1637, Hulme's uncle John Hulme acted as his guardian.
It is probable that Hulme was educated at the Manchester Grammar School. Hulme is believed to have matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford in 1649.
In 1648, some of Hulme's property was seized for his Cavalier sympathies in the English Civil War. In 1653 Hulme acquired an estate and mansion at Kearsley, where he would reside in later life. The house at Kearsley was the most significant in the locality, and accounted for seven of Kearsley's thirty-nine taxed hearths in 1666. Hulme also owned major properties at Hulme Hall in Reddish, Withingreave Hall in Withy Grove, Manchester, and Outwood near Prestwich. He held minor office in Manchester's court leet, and became a Justice of the Peace. Having lost his only son Banastre, Hulme left his property in trust to maintain four exhibitioners of the poorest sort of bachelors for the space of four years at Brasenose College, Oxford. This was the beginning of the Hulme Trust. Its property was in Manchester, and owing to its favourable situation its value increased rapidly. Eventually in 1881 a scheme was drawn up by the charity commissioners, by which (as amended in 1907) the trust is now governed. Its income of about £10, 000 a year is devoted to maintaining the Hulme Grammar School in Manchester and to assisting other schools, to supporting a theological college, Hulme Hall, attached to the university of Manchester, and to providing a number of scholarships and exhibitions at Brasenose College. On his death in 1691 he was buried in the Hulme chapel built by his ancestors in the collegiate church of Manchester.
Hulme was a notable English philanthropist, known as the founder of Hulme's Charity.
Hulme married in 1653. He lost his only son Banastre.
