 In any case his date of birth was November 12, 1847.After first apprenticing as a warehouseman, he attended the Church of Ireland Normal College, after which he served as the Superintendent of the Buckingham House Free School for Boys in Cork, Ireland.After three years there, in 1872 he applied to the Church Missionary Society to be accepted into their missionary program, and then for a year attended the Church Missionary Society College, Islington.