 He was placed in the care of an uncle, Judge William Gregory, and educated at Christ's Hospital.He entered the navy in 1781 but was gaoled two years later for stabbing and killing a fellow midshipman.He came into notice by the publication of two volumes of verse, "Odes, Poems and Translations" (1790), and "Poems on Various Occasions" (1791), and probably about this period became master of Alphington Academy near Exeter; one of his pupils was Robert Gifford, 1st Baron Gifford (born 1779).