He copied the works of Willem van de Velde the Elder, a Dutch marine painter, very popular at the time in England.

Working for a publisher documenting the events of the Seven Years' War, he painted a series of depictions, including the capture of Havana.

[4][5] He participated at the exhibitions held by the Society of Artists of Great Britain, founded in the early 1760s, and became a member in 1765.

They were married in what was known as a 'Fleet wedding', a less expensive and less formal form of marriage that was possible without affiliation to a particular parish and was common in the area around Fleet Prison at the time.

The couple had four daughters, Catherine, Augusta Charlotte, Johanna and Sarah, and two sons, the elder of whom, John Thomas Serres, also became a prolific marine painter.