He matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford, on 30 May 1759, but, according to his brother-in-law James Pettit Andrews, was also at Christ Church.
[1] After 1762 Penrose left university and joined a private Anglo-Portuguese expedition to attack of Buenos Aires, under the command of an adventurer named Captain Macnamara.
The operation was at first successful; but the flagship, the Lord Clive, caught fire, and Macnamara was drowned, with most of the crew.
The second vessel, the Ambuscade, of 40 guns, in which Penrose served as a lieutenant of marines, escaped, and ultimately arrived at the Portuguese settlement of Rio de Janeiro.
at Hertford College, Oxford on 8 February 1766, took holy orders, and became curate to his father at Newbury.
[1] Penrose's productions are mainly imitation of William Collins and Thomas Gray; several of his poems are on the theme of his disappointments in life.