I have Michael John Daley's death certificate now showing he died in the Union Workhouse in 1903, occupation "formerly a Hawker of Chelmsford", so I believe this is William John's father; Michael was also in the workhouse in the 1901 census of Chelmsford.
As a further favour, can anyone look up the marriage corresponding to the December quarter 1852 civil registration of a marriage somewhere in Greenwich (Greenwich 1d 857) of Michael John Daley? It is to either Ellen Jeffries or Mary Ann Plummer; if the latter this COULD be William's parents' marriage.