The son of a Canterbury farrier, he was a chorister at the cathedral in his teens. He became a music teacher in London, then organist at Bangor cathedral, but lost his post because of his association with Methodism and Dissent. From 1784 to 1806 he was organist at Lady Huntingdon's Clerkenwell chapel, and from 1800 also at St. Bartholomew-the-Less, in London. He also sang alto at Drury Lane and Westminster Abbey. 'Miles Lane' (HP 252), his vigorous setting of the hymn 'All hail the power of Jesu's name', was first printed in the Gospel Magazine, November 1779 and is his only known hymn tune. He died in London on 18 January 1806.

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