He was born in London, where he received the early part of his education at St Saviour's Grammar School. At the end of 1724 he was sent to St John's College, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship, around 1730, became Master of Arts in 1732, and took the degree of MD in 1739. He remained at Cambridge nearly ten years longer practicing medicine, and gave an annual course of lectures on materia medica. In 1746 he became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London; and two years later he settled in London, where he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1749, and enjoyed an extensive medical practice for more than thirty years.