Practised at Bedford in the firm of Harris & Son. He was co-proprietor with Henry Harris, LRCP Edin, Resident Physician, of the Springfield House Lunatic Asylum. He was also Surgeon to the Bedford General Infirmary, and Visiting Surgeon of Lunatic Asylums in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Huntingd

Came of a West Country family which held property in Cornwall and Devon and used coat-armour from the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was one of eight children, and in 1810 married Miss Delpratt, a Huguenot, by whom he had two sons. He was educated near Plymouth, was apprenticed to Samuel Luscombe from