He went to Pearsall's Grammar School; and "his intelligence and his quiet studious habits soon won for him the esteem of the schoolmaster, the Rev.
In many of his letters, he expressed his thankfulness for his training among the English Presbyterians, and the accurate scholarship of his learned tutors: "If Mr. Wellbeloved did not show us all truth, he gave us that honesty and freedom of thought which are the master-keys of all knowledge, sooner or later."
He astonished the little congregation supplied by the students with a vehemence and fervor they little anticipated, for he was very short in stature, and boyish in appearance.
Within a month after leaving college (8 July 1838), he commenced his ministry at the Strangeways Chapel, Manchester (opened 17 June).
The leading ministers of the district resented the exclusion of their able and zealous friend, and the ardent young preacher felt himself unwelcome.
He worked, however, with great energy, overdoing himself — and his hearers; for some of his doctrinal lectures were nearly an hour and a half in length.
Sir T. Potter, who presided, said that "their late esteemed pastor had secured their warmest approbation and affectionate regard."
Mountford had long wished to visit the United States, and in 1849, Dr. Huntington obtained a free passage for him.
He sailed in November, arriving in Boston early in 1850 and preaching in Dr. Huntington's church the next Sunday morning, and the following Thursday, 17 January.
He preached for a time at the Unitarian church at Washington, D.C., where President Millard Fillmore had a seat and Daniel Webster and Edward Everett were occasional attendants.
Interesting and characteristic letters on his travels appeared in the Quarterly Journal of the American Unitarian Association.
They stayed a long time in Rome, where "the subject of the supernatural" grew on him "as to importance, and deepened as to interest".
These excited great attention, and were praised both by the Orthodox and the Radicals, so that he was encouraged to add another on " The Outburst of Spiritualism".