Fawcett began his education at Reverend French's school in Ware, Hertfordshire and in 1774 entered the dissenting academy at Daventry.
In 1780 Fawcett was called to be the morning preacher at Marsh Street Presbyterian Chapel in Walthamstow, east of London.
[3] Wordsworth admired his sermons, but felt that Fawcett was unstable, and is said to have modelled the "Solitary" in his poem "The Excursion" after him.
[4] In 1795 Fawcett abandoned his preaching and leased a farm called Edge Grove near Aldenham, Hertfordshire.
These were much lauded; Joseph Priestley wrote that his The Art of War revealed "a most exuberant imagination ... some parts are very affecting".