Born at Oxford, 18 March 1787, Latham was the eldest son of the late John Latham, M.D., F.R.S., sometime President of the Royal College of Physicians, and, as a coheir of the Cheshire families of Mere and Arderne, derived maternally a recorded descent from most of the ancient houses of that palatinate. He was admitted to Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1803, and during his residence there he obtained the Chancellor's prize for his Latin poem on the subject of Trafalgar in 1806. The same honour was awarded in 1809 and 1812 to the several and successive prize poems of his two younger brothers, namely Dr. Latham, now of Grosvenor-street, and the Rev. Henry Latham, M.A. Vicar of Fittleworth, in Sussex, then resident members of the same college. The same three brothers, in 1844 joined in the presentation of a memorial window to the parish church of Sandbach, in remembrance of their departed parents.