The son of a London tradesman, William Morgan is said (by whom?) to have been sent to Paris at the age of fourteen to begin his art training in the atelier of Thomas Couture. Although initially more interested in the sights and sounds of Paris than in the disciplined pursuit of his art, he eventually settled into his work, devoting much of his time to making copies after Old Masters and undertaking additional study at the Government Art Schools at Le Havre. Soon wearying of what he perceived to be his lack of success and not wishing to return to England a failure, he spent the last years of the 1840s working as a sailor, arriving in New York, penniless, around 1851.
After settling in Brooklyn, Morgan worked as a draughtsman while attending classes at the Academy Schools intermittently between 1853 and 1860. Morgan once confessed to Theodore Dreiser that he had done "very little studying" at the NAD classes, but on reflection wished that he had given more time and attention to them. He began submitting pictures to the annual exhibitions in 1852.
Morgan painted a number of portraits during his long career, but is best known today for his scenes of domestic life, his figures of women, young girls and children, in particular. Referring to such works as Emancipation (1869; Kennedy Galleries, New York) in Morgan's eulogy, Academy Secretary described him as a painter of "sterling merit," whose treatment of his subjects "reflected the sensitiveness and refinement of his own nature."