William Mudd was born in Bedale, Yorkshire, UK, on the Clifton Castle estate, where his father was employed as the steward.
He met George Dixon (1812–1904), superintendent of the North of England Agricultural School and began to study, first practical horticulture and then botany including microscopy.
This led Mudd to use microscopic fungal spore characters as part of his method to identify lichen species.
[1] He included drawings of ascospores of 130 species which continue to be useful in resolving identification of lichen specimens.
There is a note that he improved the condition of the botanic garden substantially, but he ceased work on lichens.