Of Huguenot ancestry, Hablot Knight Browne was born in England, in Lambeth (near London) on Kennington Lane.

According to his biographer Valerie Browne Lester, Phiz was in fact the illegitimate son of his putative eldest sister Kate and Captain Nicholas Hablot of Napoleon's Imperial Guard.

When he was 7 years old, his father William Browne abandoned the family, changed his name to Breton and sailed with embezzled funds to Philadelphia where he became known for his watercolour paintings.

[1] Thomas Moxon, husband of William's sister Ann Loder Browne, helped to support the family, who were left badly off.

In the original edition of Pickwick, issued in shilling monthly parts from early in 1836 until the end of 1837, the first seven plates were drawn by Robert Seymour, who committed suicide in April 1836.

[3] Browne and William Makepeace Thackeray visited the publishers' office with specimens of their work for Dickens's inspection.

Other Dickens characters illustrated by Phiz were Squeers, Micawber, Guppy, Major Bagstock, Mrs Gamp, Tom Pinch and David Copperfield.

[4] Of the ten books by Dickens which Phiz illustrated, he is most known for David Copperfield, Pickwick, Dombey and Son, Martin Chuzzlewit and Bleak House.

Partly with the view to prevent this treatment of his work, he employed a machine to rule a series of lines over the plate in order to obtain what appeared to be a tint; when manipulated with acid this tint gave an effect somewhat resembling mezzotint, which at that time it was found practically impossible to transfer to stone.