He was a controversialist and a notable early critical writer defending John Milton,[1] attacking Richard Bentley's 1732 edition of Paradise Lost the following year.

[3] He was Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1716–1720) [4] and chaplain to the Lord Chancellor, Thomas Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield.

Parker became his patron, to whom Pearce dedicated an edition of the De oratore of Cicero.

[8] He had married Mary, daughter of Benjamin Adams, a distiller, of Holborn.

[9] Other works were: He also published sermons; he preached at the funeral of Sir Hans Sloane.