 He was named after Lucy's uncle Uvedale Tomkins, the son of her grandmother Lucy Uvedale by the latter's second husband Sir Thomas Tomkins, MP.He was educated at Charterhouse School and St Paul's by 1703 and was admitted at St John's College, Cambridge on 12 January 1704 and Lincolns Inn on October 22, 1706.Between 1709 and 1712 he travelled abroad in France and Italy.