John Wolcot was born and baptized in Devon, England, the 4th child of surgeon Alexander and his wife Mary (Ryder) Wolcot. At the death of his father in 1751, Wolcot was sent to live with his uncle in Cornwall, and two aunts who were living with his uncle. Wolcot attended various schools and at the age of 17 began an apprenticeship as a surgeon-apothecary to his uncle.

Wolcot was not an enthusiastic apprentice, being more interested in writing verse, but he completed his training with studying French for a year in France and walking the wards and attending medical lectures in London. Because of a desire for financial independence, Wolcot pursued qualifications as a doctor, and he received his medical doctor degree from the University of Aberdeen in 1767. Wolcot thereafter persuaded his uncle to recommend him to Sir William Trelawney (circa 1722-1772), who had been appointed governor-general of Jamaica, and Wolcot went to Jamaica with the family in 1768.

By 1769 Wolcot had returned to England to be ordained as a priest, in the further hopes of gaining financial independence. While in London his uncle died, delaying Wolcot's return to Jamaica until 1770. Finding satisfaction neither as a parish priest or as a military doctor, Wolcot sought permission to return to England in 1773 from the new governor of Jamaica after Sir William's death.

Wolcot settled in Truro with a medical practice, advocating for natural cures instead of prevailing drugs and treatments prescribed by other doctors of the time. At this time he was also developing a literary career, and finally in 1781 took an artist protege, John Oppy or Opie, to London, to establish themselves in literary and artistic circles.

Opie had immediate success; Wolcot started gaining success in 1782 with the publication of Lyric Odes to the Royal Academicians for 1782, for the first time under his pseudonym Peter Pindar, "a distant relation of the poet of Thebes." In these and later Odes, Wolcot combined a critical eye for art, or anti-royalist jokes, with his satirical wit, and he finally gained the financial success he had craved most of his life. As Pindar, Wolcot wrote a variety of verse, including pastorals, sentimental odes, and ballads, but was best-known and loved for his satirical odes. He also served as a regular reviewer for the Monthly Review from 1773-1796 and wrote some prologues and a tragedy that was never staged. He gained international fame for his satires but established no school of his own, though he had imitators.

[Information retrieved from Jones, William R., "Wolcot, John [pseud. Peter Pindar]," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2008.]