His parents were Quakers and he was educated at the Friends' school in Goodmanend, Bradford and after an apprenticeship as a sorter and stapler of wool he joined his father and uncle (John) in the leading merchant business in the town.
In 1777 he was elected chairman of the newly established Yorkshire Worsted Committee acting as a policing agency to prevent fraud and embezzlement in the industry.
In 1766, following a meeting at the Sun Inn, Bradford which launched the idea of a cross-country canal from Leeds to Liverpool, he became the chairman and treasurer of the Bradford committee, writing a pamphlet A Summary View of the Proposed Canal from Leeds to Liverpool in 1770 which helped in the successful bid to bring the canal bill into law and was responsible for much of the fund raising.
He married Christiana Hird, a Quaker minister, in 1763 and they had six children, two sons and four daughters.
He built Undercliffe House at Eccleshill where he lived for the rest of his life, playing host to itinerant Quaker ministers.