Born at Woodside Plantation in Clarendon County, William Belser was educated at Summerton High School and the University of South Carolina, receiving an A.B. degree with highest honors. He did post-graduate work in English literature at Johns Hopkins University and at the University of South Carolina School of Law, receiving an LL.B. degree in 1900.
He was first married to Mary Elizabeth Wilson of Manning by whom he had six children, and, after her death, he married Mary Elliot Cummings of Winsboro.
His many honors and medals, while in college, evidenced the high quality of scholarship and ability he was bringing to his professional career.
In the practice for more than sixty years, he possessed the qualities of a great lawyer: integrity of the highest degree, intellect of the first order, knowledge of the law far above the average, and indomitable physical and moral courage.