He was educated at Trentham, Staffordshire and at Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire, and entered St John's College, Cambridge in March 1710.
From April 1711 he attended the lectures of Nicholas Saunderson, afterwards Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, and formed a friendship with him.
[2] He took deacon's orders, but, finding no preferment, he began to practise medicine in Wolverhampton in February 1720, and resigned his fellowship in 1723.
[1][4] He was twice married: first, on 24 June 1725, to Rachel (1695–1756), daughter of Roland Manlove of Leigh's Hill, Abbot's Bromley, in Staffordshire.
After her death he married in October 1756 Frances (1711–1798), daughter of Sir John Wrottesley, 4th Baronet, and widow of Heigham Bendish of East Ham in Essex.