Originally raised to tend animals, Edward went to London in 1773.

[2] He then served an apprenticeship with his uncle, John Troughton (b.c.1716) alongside his elder brother, also John Troughton, and in 1779 he became his business partner and soon established himself as the top maker of navigational, surveying and astronomical instruments in Britain.

In 1795 he delivered what is now known as the Troughton Equatorial telescope to the Armagh Observatory, a 2-inch aperture refractor telescope mounted equatorially, and its first major instrument since its founding in 1790 (It survived into the 21st century also).

Troughton was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1809.

Troughton sued for payment, and with informal legal counsel provided by Richard Sheepshanks, he prevailed.