The eldest son of  William Nares, he was born in Chilton, Middlesex, on the 13th Jan 1821.   He was admitted to St John's College Oxford in 1841, matriculated the same year and BA in 1854.

He was ordained deacon in 1854, and priest (Exeter) in 1856. He was curate of; Great Torrington, Devon (1854-7),  Hornsea, Yorks (1858-62), Driffield (1862-70), Masborough, (1871-6), King's Sutton, Banbury (1881),  Burrough-on-the-Hill, Leics., (1881-2).

He was certainly resident in Driffield, Yorkshire, in 1864, according to a family Bible (now in the possession of his gt-gt-gt-grandson, Anthony Nares, dating from that year).

He married Hannah Fleming (b. 1828, Stepney) in Stepney, London, in June 1845, and they had four children, George (1853), Edith Maud (1860), James (1863) and Florence Ethel (1866).