[2] His father, a plumber and glazier, died when William was 15, after which he carried on a carrier business with his older brother John in Hinckley.
They chose Burton-upon-Trent as their home because it was midway between Manchester and London, was a growing industrial-commercial centre, and was ideally positioned on the new Trunk canal, continuing his business there as a carrier of beer, his chief client being Benjamin Printon.
He bought a town house in the High Street, which contained a brewery and malthouse on adjoining land.
Burton was already a thriving brewing town with several breweries exploiting the growing export beer trade via the Trent Navigation and Hull to the Baltic ports in Russia, mainly Saint Petersburg.
[4] He established the Bass Brewery and catered mainly for the domestic market, but in 1784 he started to export ale directly to Russia.