He was ordained priest in 1857, and after serving several curacies was appointed professor of Hebrew at King's College London, in 1863.
In 1876 he was elected prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral, and he was rector of Cliffe-at-Hoo near Gravesend (1880–1889) and of Much Hadham, Hertfordshire (1889–1900).
Besides the lectures noted he published Studies in Genesis (1880), The Foundations of Morality (1882) and some volumes of sermons.
[2][3] His son, Stanley Mordaunt Leathes,[2] became a Fellow of Trinity, Cambridge, and lecturer on history, and was one of the editors of the Cambridge Modern History; he was secretary to the Civil Service Commission from 1903 to 1907, when he was appointed a Civil Service Commissioner.
His second son, John Beresford Leathes,[3] a distinguished physiologist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1911.