He was educated at Eton College and Clare Hall, Cambridge,[1] where he graduated LL.B.
Shortly after that he married Frances (d. 27 November 1833), the daughter and heiress of Thomas Manning of Bungay, Suffolk.
When he moved to Walcot Hall, Diss, Norfolk, he took on the same posts for that county.
He was joint-author with Samuel Goodenough of Observations on the British Fuci, London, 1797, and contributed papers to the Philosophical Transactions and the Transactions of the Linnean Society of London between 1784 and 1794, on fungi and algæ.
He also furnished information to Smith for James Sowerby's English Botany, and to William Withering for the second edition of his Systematic Arrangement of British Plants, as well as to Thomas Martyn for his edition of Philip Miller's Gardeners' Dictionary.