Punshon was born at Doncaster, Yorkshire, was educated there, and, after spending a few years in business, at the Wesleyan College, Richmond.

After serving the usual period of probation he was ordained at Manchester in 1849 and for the next nineteen years travelled in several circuits, including some of those in London (1858–1864).

His preaching and lecturing drew great crowds both in the Dominion and in the United States, and he was five times president of the Canadian conference.

[citation needed] He published several volumes of sermons, and a book of verse entitled Sabbath Chimes (1867, new edition 1880).

[1] He died, aged 57, at Tranby Lodge, Brixton Hill, on 14 April 1881 and was interred in a miniature Gothic chapel erected at West Norwood Cemetery.