 Born William Beckett on 10 September 1826, he was the third and second surviving son of Sir Edmund Beckett, 4th Baronet, of Grimthorpe, Yorkshire, and his wife Maria Beverley, daughter of William Beverley of Beverley.He was educated at the Rugby School and Trinity College, Cambridge.In 1847, at twenty-one, he joined his father's banking firm of Beckett & Co.