The eldest son of a tax collector, Humphrey Repton attended Norwich Grammar School, concluding his schooling with three years in the Netherlands. He was then apprenticed to a Norwich textile merchant and, after his marriage to Mary Clarke in 1773, was established in business by his father. In 1778, following the death of his parents, he resolved to live as a gentleman farmer, moving to Sustead Old Hall, Norfolk.

The landscape sketches he made around this time (Norwich, Castle Museum)—the first indication of where his future career lay—were engraved for M. J. Armstrong's History and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk (1781). He became a friend of William Windham of Felbrigg, traveling to Ireland as his private se...