The sitter was notable as a religious writer and public moralist, as a speaker and in print. At the age of 16 he gained a place to study at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, graduating as BA in 1784 and MA in 1786. He was appointed curate of Mentmore, Buckinghamshire, in 1788 and then of St Dunstan's, Stepney, from 1790, where he also became chaplain to the Mile End Volunteers and, around 1810, Minister of the Tavistock Chapel, Long Acre. In 1814 he became Rector of St Margaret’s, Bowers Gifford, Essex, and gained the further benefice of stipendiary curate of Pitsea from 1815.

He was a prominent member of the Society for the Suppression of Vice and became notable in a long campaign in its name to close the Royalty Theatre, Wellclose Square (1787–1826), the only one then existing on the eastern edge of the City of London.