He was educated at the library of his step brother, Stephan Hadley,[1] At the age to ten, he went to live with his uncle in Chestertown.

He received his early education under the direction of the Chestertown Free School teacher, Charles Peale.

[4] The archives of the society are held at the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, University of Pennsylvania.

He established a profitable wheat trade with England and Spain, turning away from tobacco cultivation.

[7] He raised the funds to send Charles Willson Peale to London, where the young artist trained under Benjamin West in 1767, for two years.

The Bordleys maintained their winter residence in Annapolis, Maryland, and moved to his estate on Wye Island.