Buckler, from Warminster in Wiltshire, studied at Oriel College, Oxford, from 1733 onwards.
They were seen as leaders of the Tory group at Oxford, who enabled Roger Newdigate's selection as Member of Parliament for the university constituency from 1750.
Tories also helped to elect John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, as the university's Chancellor in 1759.
In 1749, the author of Oxoniensis academia, John Pointer, alleged that the bird in question was only a goose; Buckler replied in 1750 with A Complete Vindication of the Mallard of All Souls College, although he did so anonymously.
In 1765, he published a genealogical table of the families entitled to claim fellowships of All Souls by virtue of a relationship to the founder, Archbishop Henry Chichele; he and Blackstone were opposed to those graduates with only family ties behind them.