After serving an apprenticeship at Pontefract, he was taken into the house of Messrs. Dawson & Walker in Cornhill, London, but abandoned business for literature and antiquities.
In 1784, he visited the continent, residing at Geneva to learn French, and afterwards exploring the mountainous districts of Savoy.
He was abroad five years, during which he made the acquaintance of eminent men of learning, and of Cardinal Borgia and Prince Kaunitz.
He made two other journeys to the continent in 1791 and 1792, when he travelled through a great part of Germany, and also visited Paris.
In 1794, he went again to Italy, and died on 16 July 1795 at Ariano, worn out by the difficulties he had encountered in his journey to Calabria in that year.