He was born George Pretyman in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk to a family claiming to have been influential in the region as far back as the fourteenth century.

Pretyman attended Bury St Edmunds Grammar School and then Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating in 1772 as senior wrangler and Smith's prizewinner.

Pitt became Prime Minister of Great Britain in December 1783 when the Fox-North Coalition fell but it remained for him to win the 1784 British general election.

[10] Pretyman remaintained on close terms with Pitt, though Lincoln's duties kept him from frequent visits to London, and shared Whig attitudes.

In a sermon to the House of Lords on 30 January 1789, Pretyman condemned Charles I, who wasexecuted by parliament in 1649, and praised his political opponents.

Pretyman was a traditional Anglican and initially had little time and sympathy for the evangelical group in the Church of England called Methodists.

Though to the inferior clergy there was unquestionably something over-awing in his presence, arising from their conscientiousness of his superior attainments, yet it was impossible not to admire the courtliness of his manners and the benevolence of his sentiments Though he appeared somewhat aloof in public, Tomline was a devoted family man and genial enough given the right company.