Born at Old Rathmines Castle, County Dublin, the seat of his grandfather, on 9 February 1784, third son of Edward Nolan of St. Peter's, Dublin, by his wife Florinda.
In 1796 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, but did not graduate, and on 19 November 1803 matriculated as a gentleman commoner of Exeter College, Oxford, chiefly in order to study at the Bodleian and other libraries.
He was ordained in August 1806, and after serving curacies at Woodford, Hackney, and St Benet Fink, London, he was presented, on 25 October 1822, to the vicarage of Prittlewell, Essex.
His religious views were evangelical, and he was strongly opposed to the Oxford movement.
He died at Geraldstown House, County Meath, on 16 September 1864, and was buried in the ancestral vault in Navan churchyard.