Edward Hincks was educated at home by his father and at Midleton College before entering Trinity College Dublin. He was elected a Scholar of the College in 1810, and in 1812 won the Gold Medal and Bishop Law's Prize for Mathematics. Standing against Thomas Romney Robinson, he won through and was elected a Fellow of the College in 1813 and four years later took his M.A. In 1819, following the death of Thomas Meredith, he was presented to the Rectory of Ardtrea in County Tyrone. Though Ardtrea was a valuable and highly prized Rectory, it was also isolated for a young bachelor and he resigned the position in 1826, taking up the Rectory in Killyleagh, County Down – an office he was to hold for the remainder of his life.