[4] He promised his father that he would qualify in medicine in return for a small estate in Wirral, Cheshire, which was worth about £50 a year.
[2] He went to medical school at Edinburgh, and then to Leiden where he was taught by Boerhaave and his contemporaries, Gaubius, Albinus, and Gravesand.
This led to opposition from the professors who argued that his theological opinions were unsound.
However his lectures were popular with the students and he was supported by eminent people including William Blackstone and Robert Lowth (who was later Bishop of London).
[2] However, possibly because of ill health,[3] or following the death of a woman he intended to marry,[4] he returned to Runcorn.