Painter and engraver William Bellers is thought to have enrolled at the University of Oxford in 1734 as ‘illuminator’ (painter) and ‘privilegiatus’ (licensed to work within the university). He later mainly made views of the Lake District in the manner of George Lambert and also painted or etched views in Birmingham, Derbyshire, Hampshire, Sussex and along the English coast. He exhibited over 60 works at the Free Society of Artists (1761-73). The rights to his plates were purchased by Robert Sayer in c.1766 and then by John Boydell in c.1769. Boydell issued a series of eight prints in 1774. Bellers sold prints and drawings by himself and the Old Masters from his home in Poppins Court, off Fleet Street. Nothing is known of him after 1773.
