In 1836, William Porcher DuBose was born near Winnsboro, Fairfield County, South Carolina (near Columbia, South Carolina) to the former Jane Sinkler Porcher ("Porcher" is French and pronounced as if spelled "por-shay") and her husband, Capt. Theodore Samuel DuBose. Both sides of his family were descended from French Huguenots who had immigrated as religious refugees in 1686 and settled in the Midlands of South Carolina. DuBose grew up on the family plantation near Winnsboro; his parents were planters and major slaveholders, owning 204 slaves in 1860. His great-uncle William DuBose (1787 or 1788 - 1855) was also a planter and major slaveholder; he was elected as South Carolina's lieutenant-governor. W. P. DuBose was privately educated, including at Mount Zion College, a private male academy in Winnsboro. Later he taught there.