 Northey graduated from Cambridge University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1861 and was ordained as a priest in the Church of England.He was curate at All Saints' Church, Huntingdon from 1862 to 1864 and at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London from 1864 to 1869.From 1870 he was principal of Hockerill Training College until he became vicar of Offley in Hertfordshire in 1881.