He entered business in 1750, his father having failed shortly before, and made a living in stocking-weaving and salmon-fishing.
He was influenced by the example of John Howard the philanthropist, whom he probably met in 1776 in Scotland, and took an interest in charitable movements.
The remaining income was to accumulate for a period, and then to be given as a first and second prize for essays in proof of the existence of a supreme Creator, upon grounds both of reason and revelation.
In 1815 the first prize was won by William Laurence Brown, and the second by John Bird Sumner, who became archbishop of Canterbury.
The funds were then applied to lectureships, on some branch of science, history, or archæology treated in illustration of natural theology.