Wiseman was born in Seville on 2 February 1802, the younger son of James and Xaviera Strange Wiseman, of Waterford, Ireland, who had settled in Spain for business. On his father's death in 1805, he was brought to his parents' home in Waterford. In 1810, he was sent to Ushaw College, near Durham, where he was educated until the age of sixteen. Wiseman would later recall that John Lingard, Vice-President of the college at the time, showed the quiet, retiring boy much kindness. In 1818, Wiseman proceeded to the English College in Rome, which had reopened in 1818 after being closed by the Napoleonic Wars for twenty years. He graduated with a doctorate of theology with distinction in July 1824, and was ordained to the priesthood 10 March 1825.