[1] He attended Doylestown Academy and Doctor Gummere's private boys' school near Burlington, New Jersey.

He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1825 and commenced practice in Doylestown.

In 1844, he built the James-Lorah House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

[1][4] Their children were Elizabeth, Mary Rebecca, Henry A., and Thomas Stewart.

[9] The two half-sisters, Elizabeth and Fanny, would be the role models for Madeleine Lee and Sybil Ross in the Henry Adams novel Democracy.