Career
He was to spend much of his life confined to a wheelchair, being unable to walk due to a spinal complaint. At one time he had attended Hawkshead Grammar School and he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1814, but left without taking a degree. Around 1819 he commenced the building of his regency mansion, Esthwaite Lodge (subsequently a youth hostel), to the design of George Webster.
The grounds were specially laid out with easy gradients for his invalid chairman
Besides other antiquarian interests, he also edited Doctor William Close"s unfinished work An Itinerary of Furness.