20 November 1786, Beverley), was born in 1812, three years before the end of the Napoleonic wars, while his father was serving in the North Lincoln Militia and his parents were stationed at Essex and elsewhere in England.

Frederick Jobson recalled, in the book, that it should be remembered that it required some degree of moral heroism to become a Methodist, at the time father and mother joined the Society.

On his return to England in 1862, he published this account of his journey under the title, Australia, with Notes by the way of Egypt, Ceylon, Bombay, and the Holy Land.

He regarded Neo-Gothic with a degree of praise, and adapted its medieval designs to the traditions and needs of nineteenth-century Independent or Nonconformist chapels.

These and other modifications contributed to simplicity of interior design and internally, the most important focal point was the pulpit as required by dissenting congregations.

Due to the presence of women preachers in some Nonconformist chapels (entirely absent from Anglican churches), panels called 'modesty boards' were sometimes introduced into Dissenting Gothic pulpit designs.

He also took a keen role in the Wesleyan Society for Securing the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts which supported Josephine Butler's crusading work for women.

One biographer described him as a "large hearted and catholic-spirited man, and is the acknowledged friend of prominent men in the Established Church and of non-conformist ministers".

Further background about his life was published in Recollections of Seventy Years (1888) by the African-American Methodist minister Daniel Alexander Payne D.D.