Having passed through the College of Surgeons in 1800, he acted for a time as surgeon to a militia regiment, in 1803 took the degree of M.D. at St. Andrew's, and in 1808 commenced practice in Dublin, where he soon attained a prominent position. The Journal of Medical Science declares that his published treatises "along with Dr. Clarke's reports and papers, laid the foundation of the high repute of Dublin as a school of midwifery." He received important foreign acknowledgments of his worth, was for a time President of the King and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland, and in 1832 was elected an honorary fellow.

He died of apoplexy, 20th November 1850, aged 72.