Son of Elizabeth Worth and Jeremiah Pease. He joined the US Revenue Marine Service in 1839. He was commissioned as a 3rd Lieutenant, promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in 1843, and 1st Lieutenant in 1850, while stationed in St. Mary's Georgia on the Crawford. He married Serena, his first cousin 1x removed, on Aug 22, 1842, they rented an apartment in the Captain Edwin Coffin House on North Water Street. In 1849, they bought the third house up from the bank on South Water Street. When he became 1st Lieutenant he bought the house that architect Frederick Baylies Jr. built for himself on Main Street, the sight became Edgartown Market. (The house was moved to Starbuck Neck Road in 1922.) He was promoted to Captain in 1854, and involved in a rescue effort of the wreck of the Revenue Cutter Hamilton. He commanded cutters on many Atlantic ports, supervised the building of six cutters on the Great Lakes, and sailed two cutters from New York to the Pacific, via the Horn. In 1854, Captain Pease was given command of the Jefferson Davis, spent time on the Pacific Coast in the Washington Territory, and returned to the east in 1861. Because of his time in Charlestown, SC, and where he made many friends, Captain Pease was falsely accused of being a Southerner, and plotting with Confederate privateers on the Pacific. President Lincoln exonerated him in Apr 1863, and assigned the captain to Newport, RI in command of the Kewanee convoying vessels from Savannah, GA to NY. Captain William Pease died from typhoid fever in Charlestown, SC on a return voyage from the West. His body laid in state on the Revenue Cutter Kewanee, and was brought to New Bedford, MA. There, his remains were transferred to the Miami and returned to his home in Edgartown, MA. On Jan 14, 1866, a funeral service was held at the Seaman's Chapel on Church Street, with many of his friends from that town and SC attending. It was a clear cold day, and the late Captain received a nine minute gun salute from the crews of the Miami and the James C. Dobbin anchored off shore.