 At an early age he left his studies, and was apprenticed to a hatter.He entered the counting-house of his brother Samuel, a Philadelphia merchant, but he spent much of his time in outdoor sports, and until 1818 was president of the famous fox-hunting club of Gloucester, New Jersey that was organized in 1766.In 1790 he became a member of the Schuylkill Fishing Company, a social club, of which he was president 1812–1828.