His great-grandfather, Samuel Sprague, was a Patriot of the Revolutionary period and a participant in the Boston Tea Party who served under George Washington.
Although 13 years his junior he remained close to his older brother, the noted American expatriate painter, Charles Sprague Pearce.
William grew up in an artistic and cultured family that encouraged his interests in literature, art and music and he pursued them his entire life.
He was employed by the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company which provided him a steady income and the opportunity to support his family while continuing to paint.
His grand daughter remembers him keeping a stuffed cow's head in his studio in Newton that he used as a model and also of him using a mirror to look at his subjects instead of looking at them directly.
William Houghton Sprague Pearce died in Boston in 1935 on April 16 and is buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Dorchester, Massachusetts.