Background
Sleath was born in Broughton, Leicestershire around 1763, and attended Rugby School.
Sleath was born in Broughton, Leicestershire around 1763, and attended Rugby School.
Emmanuel College.
On leaving school in December 1778, he was immediately appointed assistant master at the same school. Sleath was later educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, obtaining a Bachelor of Divinity in 1797. He continued as a master at Rugby until he was elected headmaster of Repton School in 1800.
In 1802 he obtained a Doctor of Divinity degree.
During his 30-year period as head of Repton school, he both raised its standards and significantly increased the number of students. He was known as an excellent teacher, and as an erudite scholar, distinguished for his researches in Anglo-Saxon England.
lieutenant was said of him that "Doctor Sleath"s conversation was always entertaining and instructive and he did not at any period of his life possess the virtue of taciturnity". After his retirement in 1830 he was given the vicarage of Willington and the mastership of Etwall Hospital, an almshouse.
He died on 21 October 1843 aged 80.