John White Abbott was born and educated in Exeter, where he also practised as a surgeon. Through his uncle, James White, he met Francis Towne who initially gave him drawing lessons and later became a sketching companion. Although White Abbott exhibited annually at the Royal Academy between 1793 and 1805, he never gave up his profession as a surgeon. In 1771 he made his only extended tour out of the West Country travelling through Derbyshire, Lancashire, and the Lake District and up to Scotland.
