Thomas Robert Malthus was born at his family's country home in Wotton, Surrey, on February 13, 1766. He was raised in a wealthy family, the sixth child of seven born to Daniel and Henrietta Malthus. His father, an eccentric liberal landowner who enjoyed studying philosophy and botany and maintained friendships with both Jean-Jacques Rousseau and David Hume, educated Malthus at home until the age of ten. In 1782, after six years of study at Claverton Rectory near Bath, Malthus, then sixteen years old, was sent by his father to study under radical Unitarian Gilbert Wakefield. Two years later, he enrolled at Jesus College, Cambridge, and received his undergraduate degree in 1788. Despite a serious speech defect due to a cleft palate and harelip, Malthus earned awards for his declamations in Latin and English.

After being ordained by the Church of England, Malthus accepted an appointment as curate at Okewood in Surrey in...