WILLIAM HARVEY was born in England in October of 1845 to James and Sarah Harvey, and came to America while a young boy. The Harvey family was living in Camden's South Ward by the time the Census was taken in 1860. James Harvey worked as a machinist.

After serving in the United States Navy under Commodore David Farragut, William Harvey returned to Camden in the 1880s. At the time of the 1880 Census, his father was living at 308 Walnut Street, next door to former Mayor Samuel M. Gaul, who had been mayor of the city from 1871 to 1874. Through the good offices of Gaul, a staunch Republican, William Harvey secured an appointment to the police department by then Mayor in 1886. William Harvey would serve with only a brief interruption in the 1890s until his retirement in March of 1912. 

City Directories from 1887 through 1891 show William Harvey residing at 1010 South 2nd Street. The 1900 Census shows William Harvey living at 274 Walnut Street with his wife Annie and six children ages 22 to 2- William W., James, Emma, Maggie, Sarah, and Alexander. From 1904 through 1908 the Harvey family is listed at 263 Mt. Vernon Street. They were still at that address when Annie Harvey passed away after a long illness on March 23, 1909. William Harvey lodged at 1024 South 3rd Street when the census was enumerated in 1910. By 1912 he  remarried sometime thereafter, and was living with his second wife, Hannah (aka Annie) at 1116 Locust Street. They are listed in City Directories at that address through 1924. He became a widower once again sometime after the 1920 Census was taken. He last lived in Camden at 406 North Front Street.

On February 26, 1912 veteran police officers George Horner, William Harvey, and Benjamin Middleton retired from active service with the Camden Police Department.

William Harvey died at the Camden County Hospital at Lakeland in Gloucester Township on February 23, 1928 at the age of 83.

William Harvey's sister Emma was married to John J. Brown, an original member of the Camden Fire Department in 1869 and later on a bar owner in South Camden. Her stepson (John Brown's son from an earlier marriage) was William D. Brown, who became secretary of the Board of Education and later served as Camden's city clerk.