In early life he followed some trade, but occasionally preached in independent meeting-houses in Devonshire and at Bristol.
Ultimately he settled in London, becoming in July 1820 minister of Gower Street Chapel.
He died 16 December 1838, and he was buried on Christmas Day morning at the New Bunhill Fields burying-ground at Islington.
It has been said that his own frame of mind seemed, in general, rather gloomy; certainly his autobiography, which he called 'Travels in the Wilderness,’ 8vo, London, 1839, is not cheerful reading.
In addition to this and numerous religious tracts and biographies, he wrote 'Original Hymns, Doctrinal, Practical, and Experimental, with prose reflections,’ 2 vols.