In October 1835, he became a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1837 and 1838 was awarded Sir William Browne's medals for a Latin ode and epigrams.
He was presented by the dean and chapter of Exeter to the vicarage of Thorverton, Devonshire, in 1858, was appointed a prebendary of Exeter Cathedral in November 1861, and as one of the four residentiary canons in 1864, and acted for some time as examining chaplain to the bishop of the diocese.
He spent much time and money on the restoration work on the cathedral and on his own parish church at Thorverton.
In 1869, at the meeting of the British Association in Exeter, he delivered a paper "On Man and the Animals, being a Counter Theory to Mr. Darwin's as to the Origin of Species".
[2] He was an authority on liturgical and architectural questions, and wrote numerous works on those subjects, and also contributed frequently to the Ecclesiologist, the Christian Remembrancer, and the Guardian.