The son of Henry Lathbury, was born at Brackley, Northamptonshire, and educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford.
Having taken holy orders, Lathbury was appointed curate of Chatteris, Cambridgeshire.
In 1848 he was presented by Bishop James Henry Monk to the vicarage of St. Simon's, Baptist Mills, Bristol.
His major works were: Lathbury left a widow and four children, three of them sons.
The eldest son, Daniel Conner Lathbury, qualified as a barrister but became a journalist and newspaper editor; the second took orders in the Church of England.