He went to the United States aged 18, having originally planned to study medicine, and was employed by a whaling ship that took him to Western Australia in 1845.
In 1853 he was a cooper and had bought a brig with a business partner to transport timber to the eastern colonies.
In 1858 he built a steam sawmill at Quindalup that provided timber from jarrah and tuart forests to the eastern colonies, British India, and Ceylon and employed up to 120 ex-convicts.
[1] He built a jetty, roads, bridges and a horse tramway for his forestry business, as well as Busselton's first courthouse.
[3] He was also involved in the Castle Bay Whaling Company, was licensee of the Race Horse Inn at Fremantle, and smuggled tobacco for extra income.