William Borrer was born at Barrow Hill, Henfield, West Sussex on January 18th 1814. He inherited a love of natural history from his father the noted botanist William Borrer senior, friend of Sir Joesph Banks and William Hooker.
William Borrer was educated at Baton's school at Leith Hill Surrey. He then went to Cambridge in 1835 where he entered Peterhouse as a Fellow Commoner, taking his BA degree in 1839 and MA a few years later.He married in 1842 and settled in "Brookhill" a house where he was to house his natural history collection in Cowfold. Borrer had a keen interest in Natural History but the most complete collections were that of British Birds and their eggs.
Right up until his death in 1898 he was till adding birds eggs to his collection.