William Warren Porter was one of five children of Moses Porter and Katherine Lockman. He studied at Oxford, was ordained into the C. of E., and became a fellow of St John's College. At some point he was also appointed tutor to the Dashwood family at Well Vale in Lincolnshire. His love of the classics, the picturesque and, in particular, of Oxford is reflected in this substantial, but nevertheless intimate, group of drawings.

According to the preface to the 'Engravings from Drawings', he was constantly sketching whenever not at his studies, observing the landscape with a keen eye for the picturesque. The publication itself stands as testament to the great promise that was to remain unfulfilled, and very high regard in which he was already nevertheless held by his peers, as this talented artist's life was cut short by 'rapid consumption', in 1804, when he was only 28 years old.