William H. Williams printed, published and owned a range of periodicals and newspapers in Melbourne, many of which had literary content, such as the Journal of Australasia (1857-1858), and the Australian Monthly Magazine (1865-1867), of which William Williams was printer, publisher, owner, and initially, editor. Williams was one of the first printers in the colony to type-set musical notation, and was known as 'Musical Williams'.
Williams' son, also William H. Williams, trained as a compositor and entered the business, printing and publishing with his father as Williams & Williams in the 1890s, and eventually operating in his own right, as W. H. Williams Jnr.