Jeremiah was born in Idle, Yorkshire in 1785 and would go on to enlist for limited service into the Regiment at Nottingham on the 22nd November 1806, aged 21. 

Jeremiah would be sent to Spain with the Regiment to take part in the Peninsular War of 1808-14, where he first saw action at the Battle of Vimiera on the 21st August 1808, shortly after the war began. He would serve for almost the entirety of the war, being involved in many battles and campaigns, as shown by the clasps on his Military General Service medal. The clasps were recognition from his service at Vimiera, Talavera, Busaco, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria and Pyrenees. 

In 1813, Jeremiah re-enlisted into the Regiment for life, but unfortunately was captured in France later in the year and became a prisoner of war. Little is known about his time as a prisoner from 1813 onwards, however, it is recorded that he was in Cork, Ireland on the 20th March 1819 for his discharge from the army.