While attending the free school of that town, he met with a severe accident, and for many years it was feared that he would remain a cripple for life.

He employed the leisure thus imposed upon him chiefly by scribbling verses, but contrived at the same time to pick up some knowledge of history and archæology.

Here he published his first topographical work, a compilation in part from Philipott, Hasted, and Lysons, entitled Outlines of the History and Antiquities of Bromley in Kent.

His son writes:The following year was devoted principally to re-examinations of the towns, villages, &c., together with a personal superintendence of the great excavations he was conducting at Ambrosden and Bicester, the particulars of which will be found detailed in the Appendix.

[2] He died on 22 December 1846, and by his desire was buried on the eastern side of the lichgate of St. Edmund's cemetery, Dartford, as near as possible to the burying-ground of Noviomagus, which he had described in his last work.