He attended Charlotte Hall School in St. Mary's County, Maryland.

He read law under Judge Robert White in Winchester, Virginia and John Thomson Mason in Hagerstown, Maryland.

In 1806, he began 38 years of simultaneous service as both Chief Judge of the Washington County Circuit Court, 5th Judicial Circuit, and justice of the Maryland Court of Appeals.

[1] He married Sophia Williams, with whom he has one son, Thomas Eli Buchanan.

He resided at an estate named "Woodland", near Williamsport, Maryland, and died there on November 6, 1844.