After studying medicine under the mentorship of Dr. Willard of Uxbridge, Dr. Green and Dr. Heywood of Worcester, and Dr. Levi Wheaton of Providence, he earned an M.D.

[9][10] Beginning with his appointment as Professor of Pathological Anatomy and Materia Medica at the Berkshire Medical College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1832,[3] Bartlett taught at a number of medical schools, including Transylvania University,[11] the University of Maryland School of Medicine,[11] Vermont Medical College, Woodstock, Vermont,[12] the University of Louisville,[13] where he was Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine,[14] the University of the City of New York,[13] and the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, where he was Chair of Materia Medica and Medical Jurisprudence.

[15] After graduating from Brown in 1826 and brief study in Paris, Bartlett married Elizabeth Slater, also of Smithfield, and in 1827 settled in Lowell, Massachusetts.

[16] Running as a Whig, he defeated Democrat Eliphalet Case 958–868 for a one-year term.

During his tenure he was faced with the challenges of the Lowell Mill Girls strike in 1836, and the Panic of 1837.