Matriculating from Christ Church, Oxford on 30 June 1682, he was elected to a studentship. He graduated B.A. in 1686. However (his father William was a major of the royal guards in Scotland at the Restoration, and his uncle John fought on both sides in the Civil War), the younger John Urry fought against Monmouth, and would not swear the oath of allegiance to William III on his accession, thereby losing his studentship.
