He was the grandson of Nathaniel Mallory who founded Mallorytown in 1790. He spent his early years working with David, his father, farming and supplying lumber to the Kingston Penitentiary. In 1839, the brash enterprising 20-year-old started up Canada’s first glassworks in a log structure about 2 km. west of Mallorytown. 

The enterprise only lasted a year or so and closed “due to the unreliableness of the foreman”. The success of the business hinged on the foreman, or gaffer, as he was the only person with the knowledge of how to make the raw glass and how to form it into finished pieces.