1779 - enrolled at Tonbridge grammar school. 1790 - graduated BA from Jesus College, Cambridge. 1791 - toured Great Britain with his pupil, the Hon. Henry Tufton. 1792 - went to Italy with Lord Berwick. 1794 - graduated MA from Jesus College, Cambridge. 1795 - made a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. 1799 - set off for Scandanavia, accompanied by John Marten Cripps, Thomas Robert Malthus and William Otter. 1800 - collected mineral samples in Siberia with Cripps. 1803 - University of Cambridge awarded him the degree of LLD. 1805 - appointed senior tutor of Jesus College. He was ordained and instituted to the vicarage of Harlton in Cambridgeshire. 1808 - appointed as the first professor of mineralogy at Cambridge. 1809 - he was presented to the rectory of Yeldham in Essex. 1817 - elected librarian of Cambridge University.