He was educated first under the care of Henry Nott, vicar of Terling, and next at Felsted grammar school.
He was ordained priest in 1742, and, after making a tour on the continent, resumed tutorial work at Oxford.
Resigning Hatfield in the latter year, he was presented to the rectory of Blithfield, Staffordshire, and on 2 January 1752 he was instituted to the lower mediety of Malpas, Cheshire, where he thenceforth resided.
In 1758, when he received a bequest of £8,000 from William Barcroft, rector of Fairstead and vicar of Kelvedon in Essex, he resigned Blithfield and applied himself more especially to literary pursuits.
On 30 October 1781 he was collated to the archdeaconry of Richmond, and in 1783 was offered by Lord North the regius professorship of divinity at Oxford, which he declined on account of age.