He was apprenticed to a surgeon in Barnstable before becoming a pupil of the famous eye surgeon,  J. Cunningham Saunders, the founder of the ‘Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital’, now known as ‘Moorfields Eye Hospital’.

Following years of professional practice and training with Saunders, he established ‘The London Ophthalmic Hospital’ (which was designed by John Nash) on Albany Street in London.  He became famous for offering his services free of charge to soldiers injured in the military campaigns to expel Bonaparte from Egypt and for restoring the sight of several completely blind pensioners at the ‘Greenwich Hospital’ (the naval equivalent of the ‘Royal Chelsea Hospital’, the home of the famous Chelsea pensioners) for which work he was knighted. 

His reputation was such he was appointed ‘Oculist Extraordinary to the Prince Regent’,  ‘Oculist in ordinary to the Duke of Kent’ and ‘Oculist in ordinary to the Duke of Sussex’