Originally intended for a business life, he attracted the notice of Hugh Worthington, minister at Salters' Hall, under whose advice he studied for the ministry at Wymondley academy.
For six months (March to August 1811) he was assistant to James Tayler at High Pavement Chapel, Nottingham.
In 1812 he succeeded Thomas Madge as minister of Churchgate Street Chapel, Bury St. Edmunds, and held this charge for twenty years.
His ministry was not successful, and he turned to literature as a means of augmenting a narrow income, contributing to periodicals, and producing original tales and sketches.
At the end of 1834 he published anonymously ‘The Autobiography of a Dissenting Minister,’ in which he plays the part of a candid friend to his former co-religionists.