William Wymark Jacobs was born 8 September 1863 in Wapping, London, England. The eldest son of William Gage Jacobs, and his first wife, Sophia Wymark, who would die when Jacob was very young. Jacob's father was the manager of a South Devon wharf, and young Jacobs spent much time with his brothers and sisters among the wharves observing the comings and goings of the tramp steamers and their crews.
The Jacobs were a large family and poor; young W.W. as he came to be called by his friends, was shy and quiet with a fair complexion. A respite now and then from the dreary dockside life were holidays at a cottage near Sevenoaks, and visiting relatives in the countryside of rural East Anglia, reflected in his Claybury stories published in Light Freights. (1901)
Jacobs attended a private school in London then went on to Birkbeck College. In 1879 he became a clerk in the civil service, then the savings bank department from 1883 until 1899. Around 1885 he also started submitting anonymous sketches to be published in Blackfriars. In 1896 Jacobs' first collection of short stories was titled Many Cargoes of which Punch magazine said his favourite subjects were "men who go down to the sea in ships of moderate tonnage." It was followed in 1897 by a novelette titled The Skipper's Wooing and in 1898 by another collection of short stories Sea Urchins. By 1899 Jacobs was confident enough to resign from the civil service to devote his full time to writing. In 1900 he married suffragette Agnes Eleanor with whom he would have two sons and three daughters.