He was seventeen years old, without parents, brothers, or sisters; and he possessed the Royston estates in Derbyshire, which were then, as now, a most valuable property.
With the year 1738 his diaries begin, and though then little more than a boy, he had tasted every illicit pleasure that Oxford had to offer.
His temptations were no doubt great; for besides being wealthy he was handsome, and had probably never known any proper control, as both his parents had died when he was still very young.

But in spite of other failings, he was a brilliant scholar, and on taking his degree, was made at once a fellow of St.John's.

He took up his abode in that College in a fine set of rooms looking on to the gardens, and from this period seems to have used Royston but little, living always either at Oxford or on the Continent.

He formed at this time the acquaintance of one Jocelyn, whom he engaged as companion and amanuensis.

Jocelyn was a man of talent, but of irregular life, and was no doubt an accomplice in many of Temple's excesses.