Postmaster at Newport. Partner in the merchant firm Grant & Vernon.

Remained postmaster of Newport until 1775. Register of the Court of Vice-Admiralty. Warden of Trinity Church. Secretary of the Redwood Library.

A Loyalist, he was banished from Newport for several months (1776).

Son of Samuel Vernon, silversmith, the friend of John Franklin, for whom Franklin collected a debt in Philadelphia in 1724 and then made free with the sum—“one of the first great Errata” of the latter's life, which he corrected by repayment.