 Roche received the best education Dublin could provide, and was instructed in all the accomplishments then deemed essential to the rank and character of a gentleman.So expert was he in the various acquirements of polite life, that at the age of 16 he recommended himself to Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who offered him, gratuitously, a commission in the army.However, Roche had fallen in with a disreputable crowd who convinced him to refuse Chesterfield's offer.