The family left Herefordshire for Dublin, where Campbell's father entered into a business partnership with Daniel Graisberry, a printer.

One son, John, lived in Belfast and designed damask and linen patterns, and the other, Charles, was an army officer killed during the storming of Badajos.

[1] Campbell attended the Dublin Society School, going on to establish himself as a topographical landscape painter.

He is known to have exhibited at Allen's, 32 Dame Street, Dublin in 1800, and in Parliament House in 1801 with two landscapes.

Campbell was one of the exhibitors at the Royal Hibernian Academy inaugural exhibition in 1826 with "Moonlight", going on to submit 6 landscapes in 1828.